Allen1
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OK, reading these ideas you all have been banding about, there is a plan here. So, this is how the next three days go:
Monday, October 12, 2076: Mitzi speaks to the Arasaka security chief at the local South Beach facility about whether Arasaka would be willing to pick back up a security contract for Morrison Square. He says he will kick this request up the line.
Tuesday, October 13, 2076: Mitzi puts out the word that he might have a job for Alpha Dog and his gang. The fixer also gets a call that a limo is its way to pick her up for a meeting at Arasaka HQ in Central City. There she meets Yoru Tomobiki, who supervises all Night City security contracts. They agree in principle to cooperate and Mitzi gets a Arasaka operational contact. The Cyber Revolutionaries have a Band Rehearsal.
Wednesday, October 14, 2076: Mitzi meets with Alpha Dog and hires him and his gang of cyborgs (Alpha’s Steel Legion) to help them take out Big Al. This will cost about €300,000 plus ammo and repairs. This also gets the Team, complete building schematics and Andrea’s (Big Al’s former security chief) complete security layout.
Friday, October 23, 2076: About just after midnight, the attack on Big Al Crenshaw commences.
The top four floors of the building have reinforced walls and windows. It has internal power and environmental sensors and scrubbers to prevent poison gas or diseases. On the second to the top floor there is also a panic room with its own environmental controls and power. The entire four floors are considered a SCIF and can’t be scanned externally. All the elevators only go to the floor just below the fortified penthouse. Access to the penthouse areas is by a stairway up with a blast door at the top. Big Al has spared no expense. There is one weakness that Andrea found while working there, but she kept that to herself …. Just in case. Although the fortified penthouse has its own HVAC system, normally it is connected to the main system in the building. The internal vents are small, but there is one that a thin person who is very flexible might be able to fit through as long as they haven’t activated the seals of the fortified penthouse. This would allow someone to get to one room away from the penthouses ‘safe room’. By studying the schematics, both Andrea and Suzy think she might be able to move through the vents and make it to the safe room.
Fortunately, Big Al treats subordinates he doesn’t consider important like garbage and Andrea is aware of most of the disgruntled ones. She has used some of the operational funds that Mitzi advanced to her to bribe some of the buildings’ staff. Angel, Andrea, Suzy and Samantha study the building’s internal structure, circuitry and electrical grid and come up with ways to penetrate it using tiny drones developed by B&B Technologies. The Team’s tech group believes they can take control or at least ‘short out’ all of the roof’s AA defenses for a few minutes, if not permanently. The plan they come up with is this:
· For the next 10 days, B&B Technologies will begin using their small drones (some of them experimental) to compromise the building’s exterior defenses.
· Mitzi will arrange to have the 4th Infantry Platoon in Nevada flown to Night City in the early morning of Friday, October 23rd to “supplement South Beach Security for Devil’s Night. In actuality they will be used as a reserve force when we overrun Morrison Square. Alpha’s Steel Legion isn’t aware that these forces will be available.
· Very early in the morning on that Friday, Suzy will be let into non-secured sections of the target building by the bribed employees and make her way up to the fortified penthouse leaving home-made ‘ radio repeaters’ to keep in contact with the Team. She will then move thru the small vents into the structure. From what you have learned, there is only one person usually at the door of the safe room. She will overpower them, enter the safe room and lock that door. This safe room can communicate with the outside world.
· While Suzy is moving in through the vents, the Alpha’s Steel Legion will arrive in a scheduled delivery truck. Once they are inside the building, Suzy will strike. When the safe room is taken, B&B Technologies’ NET Runners will shut down the AA defenses, short out whatever computers they can and create as much damage/confusion as possible. If Suzy has succeeded in taking the safe room, she will have override control of all penthouse systems. The cyborgs will attack the building’s first floor security center and seal the building from outside reinforcements.
· To the south, over the Pacific, an AV-4 with 8-Ball, Cossack, J.J. Hunter, Jamal, Tai, Angel and Crusher will race to the roof with the AA defenses down. At one corner of the roof, just away from the AV landing platform, is a roof section that Angel believes he can blow a large hole in. On reaching the roof, Angel will supervise the assembly of a frame of explosives that will allow him to quickly blow a hole in the roof to the floor below. Once the explosives are set, Angel will hop on the AV which will depart. The rest of the Team will get to the opposite corner of the roof and set off the explosives. From there, the Team jumps down the hole (a three meter drop) and begins to clear the four floors.
· Once the first floor is secure, which Alpha Dog feels will be very quick, they will send some of his people to secure the bottom of the fortified penthouse. By this time Suzy should have been able to activate all the seals on the escape door out of the bottom of the penthouse.
· As long as the Team has control of the rooftop defenses, no one can escape that way and any attempt to reinforce Big Al or let him escape by AV can be foiled.
· When Mitzi talked with Arasaka, she learned that the mega-corp has a mole in the Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association. He will be throwing an event for several on that board that he feels will be sympathetic to their cause to keep them away during the attack.
· If all goes right then, Whyte Hat’s 4th Infantry Platoon will drive in from the Night City Airport (in rented armored buses) to South Beach to be deployed as needed. Arasaka will be doubling its security force at their small factory in South Beach with the excuse to be ready for Devil’s Night. Once Arasaka has been granted the security contract, they will have 20 men to commit immediately to Morrison Square. In a few hours they can have an additional 100 men on site.
To answer some quick questions about gear. 8-Ball, Cossack, J.J. Hunter and Jamal can have Pit Vipers. Crusher has no training in this suit so he will have EMA-1 armor. Tai will be dressed in a Arasaka Mohanjin-C ACPA.
The ONI Shotgun is a borg weapon and if you are wearing a Viper suit, you can fire it. Arasaka will be happy to sell you one (well, they will sell them to Whyte Hat). This is a two space borg weapon, so it will require two hands to fire. Your Viper suits don’t have any mounting brackets so they will have to be hand caried everywhere. This means that one hand will always be occupied if you take it with you. It is a ‘borg room broom’ for use against un-augmented troops. If the defenders of the penthouse have light armor it is a great weapon, but reports from Andrea’s (bribed) friends report that most of the defenders are highly cybered and experienced ‘street samurai’.
Here are the names of the Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association:
“Big Al” Crenshaw: The president of the association and local gang lord. He outwardly owns several small businesses and the building where he lives.
Gregor Yurkova: He is the vice president of the association and is the titular owner of the Morrison Square Security Group. This is one of the people that Andrea wants dead.
Calvin O’Shea: This man is the secretary of the association and owns a bar, restaurant and dance club, the Clam Shack, right on Morrison Square. He also owns the brothel above.
Aldo Hoebacke: This transplanted Dutchman is the treasurer of the association and president of the Morrison Square Savings & Loan. The bank is on the first floor of your target building.
Ciardan Guilfoyle: A former IRA Provo gunboy, who had to flee both Ireland and Ulster when accused of a number of rapes and murders. Ciardan runs a number of laundromats in Morrison Square.
Bonti Ramamurthy: This man came from India with his parents as a young child. The parents were killed by street thugs and Bonti drifted into the street scene. He now runs two thrift stores and the largest retail food outlet in the Morrison Square area.
The Team has some other information that might prove useful. Big Al has hordes of spies watching his streets and probably has a few in South Beach. Any unusual movements may be discovered. The man is on full alert and expecting trouble.
Now as to skill PA Pilot, it takes a year of specialized training at a formal academy to acquire this skill. This is ¼ of the time needed to train someone for PA Combat Sense. In a campaign many years ago I allowed players to self-train or quickly use a Scholar chip to learn these skills and soon the campaign was filled with ACPA suits and half trained people tearing neighborhoods apart. If it’s that easy to learn, the ‘bad guys’ did it also and soon people’s characters were dying every week. I am not going down that path again with this campaign.
OK, I will be working on floorplans for the top four floors of the target building and have them posted in a couple of days. Let me know what everyone thinks about this plan and make any suggestions you feel might be necessary.
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Here is another episode in my never ending quest to post all of our campaign so at least we can keep it all straight!
Episode 36 – Universal Records Christmas Tour Continues
Background
A disparate group of Edgerunners from America and the Ukraine were brought together by a mysterious patron named ‘Marty’, who openly admitted she intended to misbehave. Well misbehave she did, this Team found itself about to be arrested on numerous capital charges. Marty, was revealed to be Martina Vargas / Lupescu, the illegitimate daughter of the late infamous Venezuelan Drug Lord, Jorge Vargas. With few prospects of surviving the wrath of LEDiv, they accepted Marty’s offer to follow her to the port city of Buenaventura in Colombia. As the only major port on that country’s Pacific coast, this city is hotly contested by all the cartels in the region. Martina ‘Marty’ Vargas, who had worked for all of these cartels at one time or another, was now considered a rising star among them. She was made ‘Arbiter’ of disputes in the city. To the Team’s surprise, in the end they learned that Marty was actually working with elements of the Colombian government who were being covertly supported by the C.I.A. and other international agencies to crush the cartels and restore the power of the central government in Bogotá.
This was accomplished (for the most part) and the Team returned to the United States with their true identities restored and their records cleared. Back in Night City they decide to remain together and continue their work as Edgerunners. With all the corruption and evil, they have seen, the Team also decides that, besides making a living, it is time to take a stand. To those who threaten the innocent with evil, their new mantra will be “Thou Shall Not Get Away With It!”
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Solo 7]: 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. Also, he acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Angel Torres [Techie 4]: This outwardly morose individual grew up in a family of small time urban criminals in the ruins of Los Angeles. At an early age he showed a talent for technical things and developed an interest in guns and armor. The family’s background led to a number of scatterings to avoid ‘legal complications’ gave this young man an unstable upbringing, which contributed to his negative outlook on life. Fortunately, he remained close with his middle sister, Gloria, and moved to Night City. There is sister’s sometime boyfriend, Ricky Hidalgo, introduced him to Mitzi and this led to his joining the Team.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 6]: 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.
Hollow (Arthir Dawnson) [Solo 7]: This formally angry and resentful young man comes from a crime family in the Pacific Northwest and did a little time himself back in 2066. He broke with his family because he was unhappy with the direction they were going, followed by the death of his friend and mentor, a Judo instructor. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped him discover the identity of his mentor’s murderer and arranged for him to kill that man personally. This has calmed many of the demons that have been plaguing this young man.
Jamal Hemings [Medtech 7]: Jamal is now one of the Team Medics. He was born in a black working class neighborhood in Detroit in 2042. When Jamal was 15, his younger brother was killed by a cop for “playing with a toy gun while black.” This had a profound—though not immediately obvious—impact on Jamal. When he graduated from high school two years later at age 17, he joined the Navy. He entered the Navy SEALS where most of his work remains classified. It was Suzy that brought him into the company and the two are close. While his family is Moslem and his father was devout. His mother is more relaxed about prayer observances. So, Jamal did not learn Arabic initially, but has used his military educational opportunities to correct that. He is fluent now. As he grew older, he became more respectful of his religion. He is currently attending medical school in Night City.
Mitzi Blaize [Fixer 4 (Covert Operative 2 / Prowler 4)]: She is a local girl from a Night City combat zone who joined an up and coming Edgerunner Team with a powerful patron a couple of years back. They pulled off a few big jobs before some on her Team (not her) crossed a local Mafia Capo, Marco Baronti, who murdered their patron, many of her friends and scattered the others to the wind. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped her exact bloody revenge not only on Marco Baronti, but on the people who framed her father for a crime he didn’t commit, which drove this man to become a ‘family destroyer’.
Rue Perlo [Medtech 8]: She is a former Washington State National Guard medic from Seattle. Her sister was a hanger on at her hometown chapter of the Chrome Berets and served as their medic. This is where Rue became a friend of 8 Ball’s. When this solo put out the call for help for the Night City chapter, she answered this call and was hired by Marty full time. Her dream has to get her medical degree and become a certified doctor. Getting this was Martina’s promise to Rue. On her return to Night City, she will be enrolled in Medical School and in three terms will receive the training and certification as a legal Doctor of Medicine.
Xavier Aguinaldo (Fawkes) [Combat Sneak 6]: The young man was born into a large Snake Nation Nomad Family. While working on a Petrochem CHOO2 a greedy corporate flagrantly violated the family’s employment contract and bought off local authorities. His parents led a work action which was ruthlessly crushed after this legal action was declared an ‘insurrection’. His parents were arrested and his family scattered (and he believed killed). Wandering alone, he was eventually able to enlist in the United States Army where he served for twelve years eventually making the Special Forces. Cutbacks forced his retirement where he drifted to Night City and the Forlorn Hope. There he contacted his old friend and mentor, Robert Cronenberg (Kronos), who got him a job working with Mitzi’s new Team.
The NPCs
Bambi (Jennifer James) [Credibility 5]: A beautiful young woman met the Team posing as a fellow passenger on the New York Express zeppelin to befriend the Team on their trip to NYC when they were working for Marty. She turned out to be working for the World News Service (WNS). She did earn the Team’s trust when she brought diplomatic pressure to bear to have them released after they were detained in Washington, DC.
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity, and Cossack’s girlfriend. Part of the driver’s deal with Marty (and by extension, the C.I.A.) was that they would get her released from prison and to the United States.
Jack Masters [Fixer]: He is the President of Universal Records, a giant in the national music industry. His company is sponsor of this tour.
Kronos (Robert Cronenberg😞 A retired(?) C.I.A. officer from the Second South Am War and regular at the Forlorn Hope. He is a mentor to Fawkes.
Marlo (Traci Jo Marlowe😞 This woman is a former member of LRT-601 and now works as a street rep for the Militech Corporation. She is a regular at the Forlorn Hope.
Samantha Burke [Netrunner]: This beautiful young woman is old friend of Mitzi and some on her old time currently enrolled in the Masters of Computer Science Program at Night City University.
Scotty [Videographer]: This man is Bambi’s cameraman from WNS on the tour.
Stepan Danolovitch [Covert Operative 7]: This man is a Ukrainian who used to work for the late Vyacheslav Morozov, a Ukrainian mob boss who wanted to kill Cossack for dumping a load he was smuggling. Morozov came to Night City and threatened Celestin and Cossack to get Marty Lupescu’s cooperation in his criminal enterprises. The Romanian ex-pat seemed to agree, but Morosov ended up dead on his return to the Ukraine. Marty was suspected in arranging his death. That young woman didn’t like being blackmailed.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [NET Tech]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and hid her in Federal Witness Protection while they built their case against Baronti.
Usman Katusi – He is an immigrant for Nigeria, probably in his late twenties. He is the driver of the tractor trailer which is hauling all of the band’s equipment.
The Action
Saturday, December 24, 2072:
This night is Christmas Eve Show at the Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, NV. Each band will play alternating sets. There is a small electric bus that will drive them back and forth to the performance space at the hotel. Bambi is angry and suspicious since WNS has told her that she can’t show Samantha or Suzy in any security role (in combat gear), or use pictures of the two girls’ Armadillo. A compromise has been worked out between the network, the hotel, Universal Records and ‘other parties’. There will be a photo shoot where Samantha, Suzy, Mitzi, Cassie and Celestine will wear bathing suits and leisurewear from clothing line of the resort’s high end fashion shop. The young women will swim and lounge by the pool while talking to the guests about their upcoming shows tonight, so the young women head to pool with Bambi and her crew in tow.
The Death Merchants want to follow the women to the pool, but their manager forbids it. They will open tonight and Hernando wants to focus the Death Merchants for what he knows will be a tough audience for them. The Heartthrobs break into two groups and walk thru the resort to talk up their show.
Angel talks with Mitzi that he is concerned that Samantha and Suzy are “up to something” with all the electronics and weapons they have installed in the Armadillo. What especially worries the Techie is that the two young women are not sure that whatever they are planning will work.
Showtimes comes around and the order of performers is the Death Merchants (Sets 1 &4), the Cyber Revolutionaries (Sets 2 &5) and the Heartthrobs (Sets 3 &6). The Death Merchants are not so well received. The Cyber Revolutionaries do better, but the Heartthrobs are a huge hit! Once the Death Merchants are done with their last set, Hernando wants them back at the tour parking area. Somewhere between the hotel’s performance space and the tour campsite, the Clown, John Wayne Gracie, slips away. Back at the campsite a number of the Cyber Revolutionaries and drivers are sitting around a camp fire. Celestin is playing her Kontra (a Ukrainian cello). She, Suzy and Samantha are singing Romanian Christmas carols. Mitzi hears the singing and comes to the fire to join in. When the Heartthrobs return they also come to sit around the fire and break into song. Suzy hands out little presents to everyone. Finally, Nancy Chang comes out and tells everyone to go to bed. They have a show tomorrow night at the Walker River Paiute Tribe Reservation’s Pow-wow.
***
Sunday, December 25, 2072:
The tour leaves very early AM for Walker River Paiute Tribe Reservation. Once outside Reno the Team mounts up the machine gun on the GevHog. Samantha and Suzy pull off the covers on their rebuilt turrets and deploy the anti-missile system. They are met at reservation entrance by Tribal Police and given escort to festival / pow-wow grounds. Afterward set up, the Cyber Revolutionaries go with Wovoka to visit the grave of his great, great, great grandfather also named Wovoka, who was the founder of the Ghost Dance.
Other members of the tour walk through the festival and soak up the ambiance. The Death Merchants drop a good deal of money. While this is going on Fawkes has a talk with Usman Katusi, who drives the equipment truck. He wants to know if he can use the top of his truck as a lookout post when they are parked. That is fine with Usman, who warns him not to use the rear ladder on the trailer. It is break way. It is the perfect place for a wasteland raider to jump on, so Usman has rigged it as a trap!
The Walker River Paiute Tribe Music and Arts Fair begins. The Heartthrobs, who open the show, are received politely. The Death Merchants, excite some of the younger crowd, but aren’t a real hit. However, when the Cyber Revolutionaries with Loco Skysinger, a Native American, on lead vocals does their set, they electrify the native crowd along with the other attendees.
Loco heads off into the desert with a Paiute shaman after the show. Samantha finds a Mr. ‘Right Now’ and takes over the Armadillo. This leaves Suzy alone out by the campfire. Mitzi comes to keep her company. Suzy is a little upset. Apparently, a number of the Native Americans that came up and talked with Loco Skysinger about his career, didn’t approve of him having a white girlfriend.
***
Monday, December 26, 2072:
The tour leaves early in the morning for Tonopah, Nevada, and a show at the historic Mizpah Hotel & Casino. Mitzi has been here before while working for Marlo, the Militech Street Rep, she knows from the Forlorn Hope. They get there about 1 pm. While they will be performing at the Mizpah, they will park and be staying at the Old Brewery Hostel diagonally across from the rear of the Mizpah. For tonight’s show, the Cyber Revolutionaries will open, the Heartthrobs will go on second and the Death Merchants will close the evening. This is a rough town and the bands and tour people stay close to their parking area for most of the day.
The venue maintains a visible Nye County Sheriff inside and another deputy is assigned to be at their camp parking area. The Cyber Revolutionaries are well-received as there is a large number of Native Americans in the audience. It is a tough audience for the Heartthrobs, but they are very professional and win them over. A number of the Team and band members who are finished with their show are hanging around the camp fire while others rack out in the hostel. Fawkes remains on guard at the campsite. Suzy heads into the casino to feed her gambling itch and promptly loses €625 in the three hours at the tables. Since she is still angry about Loco brushing her off last night, the girl shamelessly flirts with every guy who approaches her.
Inside the venue the Death Merchants are putting on a great show! Cossack and Jamal are inside working with security. While the Death Merchants rock the house with an acceptable level of violence. This is their kind of audience. However, halfway through their show, the vocals go out and Atilla can’t be heard. Both the band and their fans are getting angry. Hernando starts screaming at Igor to fix it. Cossack goes to help Igor and at that moment Jamal spies Fawkes leaving the front door of the venue with a couple of people following him. The Navy Seal remains in the club since he fears that ‘unacceptable’ violence is about to break out.
At the same time, outside at the tour’s campsite, Fawkes is actually on guard. Also, anyone with their ear buds in realize their comms are being jammed. At this moment three men pop up outside the Team’s camp, point weapons at Fawkes. One of these men shouts, “Hit the ground!”
Another orders Fawkes to , “Drop your weapon or we will fire!”
On hearing the word ‘fire’, the third man shoots Fawkes with his submachine gun hitting him with five rounds. The Team jumps to their feet. Samantha runs into the Armadillo to use the equipment inside to find the source of the jamming. Those who have weapons draw them along with the Nye County Deputy in the camp, and start to move towards the sound of the gunfire. The others run to arm themselves. One of the mysterious attackers unloads his shotgun at Fawkes as the third again orders Fawkes to drop his weapon. When 8-Ball comes into view, the man wielding the submachinegun empties the rest of his magazine into the ex-ganger, but misses since he has to turn around. 8-Ball returns fire with a ten round burst from his Militech Mk. IV (revised). Eight rounds hit with one blowing the man’s head off. The Nye County Deputy at the campsite runs out and shoots one of the attackers. Fawkes is reeling but puts five rounds into another one of the attackers. Mitzi fires and gets six hits on another of the ambushers. One of the rounds takes the man’s head clean off.
The remaining ambusher shouts, “This is the Texas Rangers, drop your weaponsI”
The self-identified Texas Ranger, hears a voice behind him, “Nye County Sheriff, you drop your weapon! Put it down, slowly!”
The shooting stops and the Team takes cover to see what is happening.
Inside the venue the crowd is starting to riot. Hernando signals Cossack and Jamal to get the Death Merchants off the stage and the three succeed in getting them out the back door. As the exit the back, they hear someone in the distance shout, “Nye County Sheriff, drop your weapons! Put it down, slowly.”
The remaining Texas Ranger says he has a warrant for ‘that man’ (Fawkes). The Nye County Deputies insist on Fawkes putting down his weapon and he refuses. There is a tense moment as it takes Mitzi to get Fawkes to give up his weapons.
Mitzi then gets into a heated argument with the remaining Texas Ranger over jurisdiction. The ranger promises Mitzi that her and her people will be executed for killing members of his team. She screams that they attacked them unannounced and they were just defending themselves. The Texas Ranger produces his warrant, but it is in the name of one, Ramón Aguinaldo. This is Fawkes’ (Xavier’s) twin brother whom Fawkes believed died many years ago when the Aguinaldo Family was scattered. The Chief Sheriff of Nye County pulls up and tells everyone to shut up, while he gets to the bottom of this. Fawkes demands a phone call and will be given one when they get to the Sheriff’s office. The Texas Ranger pulls out his phone to make a call, but it is taken away from him by the Sheriff. The Ranger tells them that he has two more men in town on the top floor of the Belvada Hotel across the street along with another prisoner. The angry Texas cop tells them, “You are all lucky that my sniper there didn’t kill you all!”
So, the Sheriff sends a few of his deputies to that hotel. Inside the top floor room, the deputies find two hog tied and unconscious Texas Rangers but NO prisoner. Mitzi, Fawkes, Rue and the remaining Texas Ranger are brought down to the Sheriff’s office to sort this whole thing out. Fawkes calls Kronos to help identify that he isn’t Ramón. The Texas Ranger calls his boss to report the ‘murder’ of his other two Rangers. It comes out that the prisoner he thought they had was Fawkes’ older sister, Gemma.
It takes a few hours, but Kronos gets Fawkes identified. The Texas Ranger claims they identified themselves and the Team says they didn’t. Nancy Chang calls for the security videos from the company trucks which proves that the Texas Rangers did NOT identify themselves. Not only that, but the Rangers never filed their warrant in the State of Nevada. By now the Nye County Sheriff is angry at the Ranger for riding rough shod over his jurisdiction. He releases the Team, but detains the Texas Rangers for 48 hours to help with his ‘investigation’. In the end, Ramón, Gemma and their Snake Nation Nomad allies get away clean with a lot of gear from the Texas Rangers.
***
Tuesday, December 27, 2072:
Fawkes is given some speedheals and a nano-heal in the early morning hours. He should be rest for a day and Nancy Chang says they do have two days before their next show in Las Vegas. The decision is made to rest a day in Tonapah before heading on. During this time Fawkes is given two more speedheals and receives a ‘Flask of Bandages’ from Rue. Cossack heads to a store and buys two cases of Armor Saver drinks. Jamal goes out and buys a Militech taser to use on the Death Merchants if they get out of line.
***
Wednesday, December 28, 2072:
At about 10 am, the Team leaves for Las Vegas. They head east along Route 6 until they reach NV 378, also known as the Extraterrestrial Highway. At about 2pm they stop along the Extraterrestrial Highway at a small settlement where there is an eatery and motel called the Little A’le’Inn. The vehicles pull into their standard defensive circle. There are a group of trailer homes behind the place along with a Fire / Sheriff’s station with a collection of converted freight trailers to the south of the more permanent structures. Outside the restaurant it a ‘mock’ flying saucer that looks like it is being towed by a tow truck. 8-Ball and Hollow follow the Heartthrobs into the restaurant as that group wants to get something to eat. The Death Merchants along with Cossack and Jamal check out the faux flying saucer. Most of the Cyber Revolutionaries walk across the road to look out over the flat desert. Samantha and Suzy call down their drone to recharge it and launch another one to replace it and begin to scan the area. Bambi and Scotty get out to get some ‘B roll’ for their documentary. Fawkes takes his sniper rifle and gets up on top of Usman’s big rig. Mitzi and Angel are sitting in chairs inside the ring of vehicles. A couple of the drivers head in to get something to eat and know the owner.
Suzy them comes on over the Team’s comms and says, “Don’t anyone act weird, but there seems to be a large group of vehicles hiding over a rise just about three and a half miles to the southeast waiting in ambush. Also, we are being watched from inside this compound. They are reporting to the waiting force to our southeast. Samantha and Suzy estimate there are about 80 bikes with 100 riders, 18 trikes with 60 riders, 15 dune buggies / cars with 50 riders; 7 homemade armored vehicles with 30 riders. All phone service is being jammed and there is another smaller group coming down the road from the northeast, but they are farther away.”
Those with various Times2 and Video Imager can see the computer driven images of the forming up attack. Samantha and Suzy’s equipment is overriding the jamming (for the most part) so they can still give reports. Suzy is listening to the ambushers’ conversation and tells the group that some of the enemy is inside the restaurant and there is a ‘hostage situation’ in there. Cossack whispers in Hernando’s ear that they are about to be hit. So, Hernando turns and shouts to his band, “We are under attack, get back to the bus!”
And the Battle for Rachel commences! Inside the restaurant 8-Ball detects a suspicious diner. With the shouting outside, the ambusher starts to pull up an Arasaka Rapid Assault, but 8-Ball pulls his Nova Arms Arno faster and puts two shots into the man’s torso. This knocks him unconscious. Hollow spies a second attacker inside and blows his head off. From inside the kitchen there is the sound of a woman screaming. It is the owner’s wife (and cook) using her cleaver to kill another of the Raffin Shiv attacker. Outside the Death Merchants and their protectors sprint for their bus and come under fire, but most of the shots go wide. Fawkes, who is on top of the equipment trailer, gets hosed down by 12 gauge shot, but this just washes off his Militech EMA-1 armor. A Raffin Shiv fires his micro missile launcher at Fawkes but misses. Another enemy does hit him with a micro missile, but again the armor holds. A fourth man fires at Fawkes but misses. These shots come from the Sheriff’s office / fire house. Mitzi moves to support Fawkes, who returns fire with his Militech Mk. IV (revised). Autofire by the fixer and a launched grenade from Fawkes silence the Raffin Shiv fire from the small police / fire station.
The Jamal moves to cover returns fire as the Raffin Shiv in Rachel launch their attack from the buildings they are hiding in. However, they are not the best shots and the Team is well armed and armored. The attackers are slowly cut down as they show themselves. 8-Ball and Hollow have suppressed the enemy inside and they now check the rest of the building and behind. The former restaurant hostages now scatter. 8-Ball and Hollow herd the Heartthrobs back to the relative safety of the tour vehicles. The two take the unconscious attacker from the restaurant The owner and his wife come with them. Samantha tells the Team that the attack column to the southeast is now starting to move out towards them, and they have maybe four and a half to five minutes before the Raffin Shiv get close enough to fire.
Those not in their armor put it on and they prepare to defend themselves. The Universal Records drivers get out their weapons to join in the defense and all the band members fall back to the circled vehicles of the tour. They also pull out their weapons, which they have had hidden in their gear. Frankie S. and Gene Koopa pull out Thompson 1928 submachine guns and 100 rounds magazines. Stepan appears in his battle gear carrying his extended barrel Dragonuv sniper rifle. Fawkes calls for his Barret M-90 sniper rifle. Both he and Stepan get on top of the equipment trailer and prepare for long range fire on the oncoming enemy. The 40mm Auto GL mounted on the Armadillo deploys and turns towards the oncoming enemy. There is no one manning the water-cooled machinegun on the Gev Hog, so Rusty Walker, the tour’s chief tech, informs the Team he was formally an Army heavy weapons specialist. He is assigned to man that weapon and given plenty of ammunition.
Off to the southeast the dust cloud of the approaching enemy can be seen. They crest the small rise about 3 kilometers away when the 40mm Auto GL on the Armadillo begins firing. Those with military experience note that the barrel is pointed to high as the weapon fires ten round bursts three times over the next ten seconds with the barrel changing positions after each burst. Nothing happens for a few rounds. Then all thirty grenades land at once in what resembles a giant ‘death blossom’ of fire and destruction in the oncoming horde.
8-Ball sees this and comments, “Right on target.”
As the grenades land, they Armadillo fires another ten rounds, the barrel moves and fires again. However, only about six rounds come out and a ‘clanking’ sound of metal is heard and the firing stops. At that point everyone’s’ access to the Battle Mapper showing the enemy’s positions crashes and goes dark. Over the comm Samantha cries out, “Oh, shit!”
Both Fawkes and Stepan can see that the first barrage has landed about a third of the way back from the front of the attacking forces and has torn a wide swath of death and secondary explosions among the attackers. The front of the column speeds up, but those behind the ‘death blossom’ come to a screaming halt. The second aborted barrage drops on this group. This rear group turns south and begins to swing around to the town’s southern flank to get out of sight of the Armadillo.
Over the regular Team’s comm channel Samantha calls out for Angel to come help them, who rushes to the Armadillo. Suzy is working to unjam the turret and Samantha is trying to get their crashed computer back on line. They had hooked their new artillery program (for the 40mm Auto GL) through the computer that runs the Battle Mapper. It is all very experimental, along with the rebuilt turret, and, while it functioned at first, it has crashed.
From the top of the freight trailer, Fawkes and Stepan estimate that the first barrage crippled or destroyed 25 motorcycles, 4 trikes / dune buggies, 2 armored cars and killed or wounded about 50 raiders. The second aborted barrage may have crippled or destroyed 5 bikes, 3 trikes or dune buggies and a single armored car. Maybe up to 20 raiders have been killed or wounded.
Angel succeeds in unjamming the turret and Suzy hands him a fresh belt of 50 grenades loaded with HEDP. Suzy and Samantha succeed in restoring the Battle Mapper feed to the Team, but the ‘artillery program’ is still off-line. The Raffin Shiv continue their advance, but it is now broken into two parts. One is still coming straight down the Extraterrestrial Highway, while the other is swinging south to loop around to the back of the town. The extra distance that the second group will have to travel means that they will NOT arrive at the same time.
In the rush to prepare their defense, no one on the Team sees Scotty deploy his own camera drone and activate the WNS van’s satellite uplink. Bambi slips away with a head mounted camera and begins a live broadcast of the upcoming battle. This media has stumbled into what could be the greatest scoop of her career. The network picks up the story live as it is happening. This could be lead to an Edward R. Murrow Award or even a Pulitzer Prize. Her hope is that it won’t be posthumous!
Next: Episode 37 – The Battle for Rachel, Nevada
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I did write up a few more of the past episodes while this site was down, so here is the next in the catch-up series.
Episode 35 – Universal Records Christmas Tour
Due to the success of the Cyber Revolutionaries opening for Destiny, they are signed by Jack Masters of Universal Records for a short Christmas Tour with two other of his recently signed bands. Jack is talked into hiring Whyte Hat to provide tour security. While waiting for the tour to leave, Mitzi works her contacts to discover more about the Loco, the gang that eliminated the booster gang, the Blood Reign. She succeeds in providing her police contact with enough information to kick off a multi-agency law enforcement investigation of Loco and the Team’s old nemesis, the Voodoo Boyz.
The music tour starts off and it soon becomes clear that bands of posers, revolutionaries and death metalheads might have issues; definitely their fans do. There is some personal squabbling on the first gig and an all out riot spills out into the street on their second. It’s going to be fun tour!
Background
A disparate group of Edgerunners from America and the Ukraine were brought together by a mysterious patron named ‘Marty’, who openly admitted she intended to misbehave. Well misbehave she did, this Team found itself about to be arrested on numerous capital charges. Marty, was revealed to be Martina Vargas / Lupescu, the illegitimate daughter of the late infamous Venezuelan Drug Lord, Jorge Vargas. With few prospects of surviving the wrath of LEDiv, they accepted Marty’s offer to follow her to the port city of Buenaventura in Colombia. As the only major port on that country’s Pacific coast, this city is hotly contested by all the cartels in the region. Martina ‘Marty’ Vargas, who had worked for all of these cartels at one time or another, was now considered a rising star among them. She was made ‘Arbiter’ of disputes in the city. To the Team’s surprise, in the end they learned that Marty was actually working with elements of the Colombian government who were being covertly supported by the C.I.A. and other international agencies to crush the cartels and restore the power of the central government in Bogotá.
This was accomplished (for the most part) and the Team returned to the United States with their true identities restored and their records cleared. Back in Night City they decide to remain together and continue their work as Edgerunners. With all the corruption and evil, they have seen, the Team also decides that, besides making a living, it is time to take a stand. To those who threaten the innocent with evil, their new mantra will be “Thou Shall Not Get Away With It!”
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Solo 7]: 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. Also, he acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Angel Torres [Techie 4]: This outwardly morose individual grew up in a family of small time urban criminals in the ruins of Los Angeles. At an early age he showed a talent for technical things and developed an interest in guns and armor. The family’s background led to a number of scatterings to avoid ‘legal complications’ gave this young man an unstable upbringing, which contributed to his negative outlook on life. Fortunately, he remained close with his middle sister, Gloria, and moved to Night City. There is sister’s sometime boyfriend, Ricky Hidalgo, introduced him to Mitzi and this led to his joining the Team.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 6]: 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 work in Colombia has led to the government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu, this coming October.
Hollow (Arthir Dawnson) [Solo 7]: This formally angry and resentful young man comes from a crime family in the Pacific Northwest and did a little time himself back in 2066. He broke with his family because he was unhappy with the direction they were going, followed by the death of his friend and mentor, a Judo instructor. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped him discover the identity of his mentor’s murderer and arranged for him to kill that man personally. This has calmed many of the demons that have been plaguing this young man.
Jamal Hemings [Medtech 7]: Jamal is now one of the Team Medics. He was born in a black working class neighborhood in Detroit in 2042. When Jamal was 15, his younger brother was killed by a cop for “playing with a toy gun while black.” This had a profound—though not immediately obvious—impact on Jamal. When he graduated from high school two years later at age 17, he joined the Navy. He entered the Navy SEALS where most of his work remains classified. It was Suzy that brought him into the company and the two are close. While his family is Moslem and his father was devout. His mother is more relaxed about prayer observances. So, Jamal did not learn Arabic initially, but has used his military educational opportunities to correct that. He is fluent now. As he grew older, he became more respectful of his religion. He is currently attending medical school in Night City.
Mitzi Blaize [Fixer 4 (Covert Operative 2 / Prowler 4)]: She is a local girl from a Night City combat zone who joined an up and coming Edgerunner Team with a powerful patron a couple of years back. They pulled off a few big jobs before some on her Team (not her) crossed a local Mafia Capo, Marco Baronti, who murdered their patron, many of her friends and scattered the others to the wind. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped her exact bloody revenge not only on Marco Baronti, but on the people who framed her father for a crime he didn’t commit, which drove this man to become a ‘family destroyer’.
Rue Perlo [Medtech 8]: She is a former Washington State National Guard medic from Seattle. Her sister was a hanger on at her hometown chapter of the Chrome Berets and served as their medic. This is where Rue became a friend of 8 Ball’s. When this solo put out the call for help for the Night City chapter, she answered this call and was hired by Marty full time. Her dream has to get her medical degree and become a certified doctor. Getting this was Martina’s promise to Rue. On her return to Night City, she will be enrolled in Medical School and in three terms will receive the training and certification as a legal Doctor of Medicine.
Xavier Aguinaldo (Fawkes) [Combat Sneak 6]: The young man was born into a large Snake Nation Nomad Family. While working on a Petrochem CHOO2 a greedy corporate flagrantly violated the family’s employment contract and bought off local authorities. His parents led a work action which was ruthlessly crushed after this legal action was declared an ‘insurrection’. His parents were arrested and his family scattered (and he believed killed). Wandering alone, he was eventually able to enlist in the United States Army where he served for twelve years eventually making the Special Forces. Cutbacks forced his retirement where he drifted to Night City and the Forlorn Hope. There he contacted his old friend and mentor, Robert Cronenberg (Kronos), who got him a job working with Mitzi’s new Team.
The NPCs
Bambi (Jennifer James) [Credibility 5]: A beautiful young woman met the Team posing as a fellow passenger on the New York Express zeppelin to befriend the Team on their trip to NYC when they were working for Marty. She turned out to be working for the World News Service (WNS). She did earn the Team’s trust when she brought diplomatic pressure to bear to have them released after they were detained in Washington, DC.
Big Al [Fixer]: This man is an info broker from the 88th Street neighborhood who runs a bar and semi-private pool hall above that bar with his name above the door.
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity, and Cossack’s girlfriend. Part of the driver’s deal with Marty (and by extension, the C.I.A.) was that they would get her released from prison and to the United States.
Detective Richard Tanque [Cop]: An old friend (and contact) of Mitzi’s who works out of Precinct 2 in the gang unit.
Jack Masters [Fixer]: He is the President of Universal Records, a giant in the national music industry. He is sponsoring the Christmas Tour.
Kronos (Robert Cronenberg😞 A retired(?) C.I.A. officer from the Second South Am War and regular at the Forlorn Hope. He is a mentor to Fawkes.
Marlo (Traci Jo Marlowe😞 This woman is a former member of LRT-601 and now works as a street rep for the Militech Corporation. She is a regular at the Forlorn Hope.
Mia Byrnes [Art Student]: The girl is now a senior at Night City University’s Fine Arts School. She found 8-Ball attractive and interesting initially because he had a Mohawk haircut in the style her soldier father wore. The girl idolized her dad and was crushed when he was killed in the South Am Wars by Cartel Forces. 8-Ball shielded her during the gunfight at the Art Gallery and while she would normally have nothing to do with a ganger, his actions convinced Mia to give him a chance.
Mr. Smith [C.I.A. Officer]: A somewhat mysterious man, who some members of the Team met in his role when he recruited them to work for Martina ‘Marty’ Lupescu at the beginning of this adventure.
Mouse (Michael Floyd) [Gang Rank 3, Jury Rig 5]: This young man is the shy, introverted kid from the neighborhood who drifted into the Chrome Berets due to his technical skills. His brother Karl, who was killed during the Security Associates assault, was a member and convinced the gang to accept him due to his technical talents. This young man has flowered in the gang.
Nails (Gayle Sigmund) [Cop 3]: This young US Marshal is partner to Gunsights, the South Am War veteran and a former member of LRT-601.
Ricky Hidalgo [Streetdeal 4]: He is a friend of Mitzi’s from her old neighborhood, who now works as Red’s (a notorious gunrunner and former member of her old Team) representative in Night City.
Samantha Burke [Netrunner]: This beautiful young woman is old friend of Mitzi and some on her old time currently enrolled in the Masters of Computer Science Program at Night City University.
Scotty [Videographer]: This man is Bambi’s cameraman from WNS on the tour.
Stepan Danolovitch [Covert Operative 7]: This man is a Ukrainian who used to work for the late Vyacheslav Morozov, a Ukrainian mob boss who wanted to kill Cossack for dumping a load he was smuggling. Morozov came to Night City and threatened Celestin and Cossack to get Marty Lupescu’s cooperation in his criminal enterprises. The Romanian ex-pat seemed to agree, but Morosov ended up dead on his return to the Ukraine. Marty was suspected in arranging his death. That young woman didn’t like being blackmailed.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [NET Tech]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and hid her in Federal Witness Protection while they built their case against Baronti.
Vitale “Vito” Agosti: A Medtech who was trained by his late father, a doctor for the former Baronti Family, the local Mafia branch. He is a friend and member of the first team with Mitzi, Jake and Suzy. Vito is a high functioning autistic with Asperger’s Syndrome and soaked up this training like a sponge. The young man has earned his certificate as a physician’s assistant and works at the local clinic/hospital and serves as an assistant coroner in the 88th Street neighborhood.
The Action
Monday, November 28, 2072:
Since all went well with the Cyber Revolutionaries in Stateline, Mitzi gets a call to provide full security for Jack Masters’ Universal Records Christmas Tour of California and Nevada featuring three of his newly signed acts. The Team will be paid €25,000 and be reimbursed for reasonable travel expenses. One of these acts will be the Cyber Revolutionaries. Mitzi calls a Team Meeting for noon, and they agree in principle to take Jack Masters’ contract. The final date for any changes in the contract will be December 5th.
In other business, they realize they need more intelligence on the Voodoo Boyz. Also, this gang has gotten word to Mitzi that they consider them still at peace with the Team. Suzy informs Mitzi that Loco is a Haitian Voodoo Loa just like all the other chapters of the Voodoo Boyz. The fixer calls Detective Tanque, her police contact and arranges for a lunch meeting tomorrow. Also, Detective Richard Tanque informs Mitzi that Loco, gang that took over from Blood Reign has come to a peace agreement with the 88th Street Station NCPD Precinct. Also, there were no reports about any ‘Blue Goo’ from the 88th Street Precinct. Loco now controls the neighborhood that used to be controlled by the now defunct booster gang, the Blood Reign.
After the meeting, 8-Ball delivers his Bermuda Bike to Suzy’s garage to have some work done on it. Cossack asks Suzy if he can use her garage to install a pintle mount on his GevHog. He offers to take a bunch of shifts at her garage to help her catch up with her backlog of jobs. This is acceptable, but the two realize that it would be best to bring in Angel to design the mount. Suzy also suggests that Angel make a heat resistant barrel for the machinegun that is going to be mounted on the GevHog. Angel rejects that idea and suggests making a water cooled jacket for the weapon instead.
***
Tuesday, November 29, 2072:
8-Ball and Cossack go out and purchase supplies for the upcoming music tour. They get multiple sleeping bags, mats, four two-man tents and a pair of camp stoves. Angel begins to plan the proposed pintle mount and water jacket for the machine gun.
Mitzi meets Detective Tanque for lunch and tells him about the ‘Blue Goo’ and that she was put on this story by Father Joe from her old neighborhood. She gives them copies of the reports on the various incidents that she has and some of the reports are on official stationary from the city’s coroner’s office. The man is astounded and wants everything she has. The fixer does hold back some of the portions of samples of ‘Blue Goo’, but she gives her police contact some of every sample. They call the 88th Street Coroner to question him on these newly discovered discrepancies in his reports to the police. Detective Tanque and Mitzi find that the senior coroner has just retired and left the country, so Vito, the acting coroner, comes in and tells what he knows. This takes up most of Mitzi’s day. She drops by the Forlorn Hope to see some people but no one she is seeking is in tonight.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons that evening
***
Wednesday, November 30, 2072:
The Team continues their preparations for the tour. Mitzi goes to Forlorn Hope, but neither the Professor, Kronos or Nails, the people she wants to talk to are there. Marianne, the Professor’s wife, is there so the fixer tells that bartender that she is looking to speak with her husband. Mitzi does spy Marlo, the Militech street rep and sits down with her. Mitzi tells Marlo most of what she knows about the ‘Blue Goo’, which the rep hasn’t heard about. Ricky Hidalgo, Red’s man in Night City is also there. Mitzi goes up to him afterward, but has to spend some time convincing her friend, that his conversation with Marlo wasn’t about cutting him out of any further Militech purchases by Whyte Hat. The fixer succeeds in calming her old friend and tips him off to the “Blue Goo’ situation.
The Cyber Revolutionaries have a rehearsal and the dancers attend with Celestin.
***
Thursday, December 1, 2072:
Cossack heads down to Nancy’s Book Nook to try and find some information on Haitian Loas. Nancy, of course, has a contact that has a rare tome on the subject. The old woman can have it for him this Monday.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen again have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons that evening.
***
Friday, December 2, 2072
After classes Suzy goes to the Forlorn Hope to meet with Mr. Smith and Kronos. Suzy gets clearance to tell Team about Tactical Battle Mapper 2.93 project. This is the next iteration of what Fawkes saw in his milspec cybereye during the last Detroit job. She and Samantha have been working with the military and the C.I.A. on this secret project.
Mitzi gets a call from Marianne. The people she wants to see will be in tonight. Mitzi walks in the door of the Forlorn Hope. By now Mr. Smith has left but Suzy is still talking with Kronos, so the Fixer goes to talk with the Professor. She tells him what she knows about the ‘Blue Goo’ and its connection to the Voodoo Boyz. The man seems unmoved and says that he knows about her running feud with that gang and isn’t going to be drawn in to it. This isn’t her intention, but the man remains suspicious.
Perhaps Suzy sees her friend, or not, but she leaves quickly. Mitzi then heads over to talk with Kronos and tells him about the ‘Blue Goo’, it’s possible use as a combat drug or poison along with her suspicions of the Voodoo Boyz involvement. The man doesn’t seem surprised, but denies ever hearing anything about it. Mitzi smiles and says, “You have an excellent poker face.”
Kronos just smiles back and tells her, “Years of practice.”
Mitzi nods and head over to talk with her friend and US Marshall, Nails. This woman has heard of the ‘Blue Goo’. The US Marshall has just read the reports from the local police. The Fed knows nothing more since all her information is based on Mitzi’s reports to the local police. What Mitzi does learn is that her talk with Detective Tanque has stirred up a legal hornet’s nest for the Voodoo Boyz. This pleases the fixer no end.
***
Sunday, December 4, 2072:
This quiet weekend ends with a Band rehearsal with the dancers as they get ready for their first big tour.
***
Monday, December 5, 2072:
South Beach Redevelopment Crews Start work on Buildings #905 & #906; which will be finished Wednesday, January 11, 2073. In the morning Cossack heads to Nancy’s Book Nook and picks up his volume on Haitian Loa.
Jack Masters finalizes the tour list by adding one to two other vehicles and a media with cameramen/drivers (2) for tour documentary. Fee is upped 20% to €30,000. Media is yet to be named. Mitzi signs the contract for Whyte Hat. Besides the Cyber Revolutionaries the other two bands are:
The Heartthrobs, a Poser ‘Crooner’ band of 1940’s to 60’s All Stars composed of:
Lead Singer – Frankie S. (a Frank Sinatra poser)
Guitar – Ricky Nielson (A Ricky Nelson poser)
Keyboards – Harvey Connick Jr. (A Harry Connick Jr. poser)
Trombone - Glenna Miller (A Glenn Miller poser & x-dresser)
Bass – Paul McGear (A Paul McCartney poser)
Drums – Gene Koopa (A Gene Krupa poser)
Tour Manager – Katharine Tracy (mid-twenties; 40’s & 50’s retro style)
Tech – Gracie Park (young twenties, Korean – American)
This band (like all posers) are always in character, which can be a little annoying. There manager is a Katharine Hepburn poser, but easy to work with, so it is said. Gracie Park isn’t a poser, but supports her band and their ‘identity’ issues. The band does attract poser gangs, especially ones that also emulate one of the band’s personalities. They are a local Night City Band.
The Death Merchants, a Heavy Metal Band in to Mega Violence (semi-posers)
Attila, the Hulk – Lead Singer; another large and strong type that reveals in his singing of violence. He puts on the aura of no fear, which may or may not be an act.
Vlad, the Railer – Guitar; a tall gaunt goth type who considers himself quite the lady’s man.
John Wayne Gracey (the Clown) – Bass Player; a man who scores 100% on the creepy meter. He exudes an aura of a cross between (Stephan King’s) It and a Killer Clown from Outer Space. This man might well be a Bozo in training.
Genghis Kan – Drummer, percussions – a large man of mixed race (Mongolian/American) origin who styles himself a ‘conqueror’ and killer.
Tour Manager – Hernando Montoya, a Mexican American in his early 30’s and former champion Lucha Libre wrestler. He does his best to keep the band in line. It helps that he can ‘beat the shit’ out of all of them and they know it. Hernando himself is a bit of a macho asshole, but is generally very professional.
Tech – Igor (yes and it is pronounced – eye-gore) is a mishappen little troll who is verbally abused by the band, but he puts up with it. No other band will hire him do to his physical deformities (ATTR = 1). The man is very competent.
This band does have a few Chromer gangs that follow them. These groups do occasionally cause some trouble, but it isn’t generally directed at other performers. There have been fights outside of the venues that they play, but not often. This band is from Los Angeles.
Universal Records staff will manage the tour and drive the band’s buses and the equipment trailer. They are:
Nancy Chang – She is the tour manager is charge. Nancy is in her mid-forties and very experience in the music business. She has worked for Jack for years and knows his mind. The woman is smart and tough.
(Roland) ‘Rusty’ Walker – Is the tour’s chief tech and sound man. Already in his fifties, this man well experienced in the intricacies of the road and the music business.
Usman Katusi – He is an immigrant for Nigeria, probably in his late twenties. He is the driver of the tractor trailer which is hauling all of the band’s equipment.
Rajneesh Sudha – Is a large, smiling man from Night City born of Indian parents. He has retained his Hindu beliefs and is a decent mechanic. He is driving the bus carrying the Heartthrobs.
Herbert ‘Sully’ Sullivan – This driver is burly, red haired Irishman who fled Northern Ireland years ago to avoid the violence. He drives the bus containing the Death Merchants.
Wovoka Walker – The man is a Paiute Indian and friend of Loco Skysinger. The band and most of Mitzi’s old team know him. He drives the bus carrying the Cyber Revolutionaries.
Ricky Hidalgo delivers the shipment of new Militch weapons the Team has ordered legally with the extra magazines an ammunition. Cossack drop his GevHog of at Suzy’s garage where it will be worked on tomorrow. 8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson.
***
Tuesday, December 6, 2072
Cossack begins working on the GevHog. Angel starts the set up on the newly arrived weapons. That evening, the Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Wednesday, December 7, 2072:
Cossack continues his work on the GevHog and is joined by Angel later that afternoon. 8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson.
***
Thursday, December 8, 2072:
While Cossack and Angel are working at the garage, Suzy and Samantha pull in to an empty repair bay with a New American Armadillo RV. They pull out a lot of electronic gear from the back and begin to install it in their new acquisition.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons this evening.
***
Friday, December 9, 2072:
The GevHog is finished. It is now smart linked and has a custom mount with a 330o field of fire on a rotating rear seat. It cannot fire straight ahead since that would kill the pilot. Angel moves on to help Suzy and Samantha work on their Armadillo, while Cossack starts helping Mouse with 8-Ball’s Bermuda motorcycle.
***
Saturday, December 10, 2072:
Work continues on the Armadillo and 8-Ball’s Bermuda. Cossack asks Suzy if this is new vehicle is what the Cyber Revolutionaries will be riding in. No, it is going to be Suzy and Samantha’s personal vehicle. They will be controlling the drones that will flying overwatch when they are on the road. The Ukrainian offers to help with the set up and his offer is accepted with the proviso that he doesn’t ever discuss the modifications they are making with anyone. Looking at all the added gear, there will be a lot of modifications including a new, rebuilt turret which will contain a 40mm Auto Grenade Launcher on a rebuilt platform. There will also be am anti-missile system for defense. As to the purpose of most of the electronics, the young women keep that to themselves. Angel does notice that there is a roof mounted laser communicator that the girls explain is to keep control of their drones.
***
Sunday, December 11, 2072:
Work continues on the Armadillo and Bermuda. There is another band rehearsal this night.
***
Monday, December 12, 2072:
Mitzi brings 8-Ball and Fawkes to the old 88th Street neighborhood to gather some information about the changes in the area to the west with the disappearance of the Blood Reign and the new gang, Loco. She heads to Big Al’s on Davis Avenue just north of the NCART station. The downstairs is a public bar frequented by the locals and upstairs is a semi-private pool hall where Big Al, a local info broker holds court. She met this man through Suzy who used to work for Big Al as one of his low level NET Runners who gathered information for him.
Mitzi sends word upstairs that she wants to talk to the man and she and her two companions are allowed upstairs only after they hand over their firearms. Big Al has a strict no weapons policy in the pool hall. When he sees the young female fixer, the info broker smiles and says, “I was wondering when you would get come to see me. I hope you aren’t here to mix it up with the Loco.”
Mitzi denies that is her motivation and she says, “I am just here to bring you some information. You do realize that the Loco are just an undeclared set of the Voodoo Boyz?”
“Of course,” Big Al replies.
“Are you aware of the ‘Blue Goo’ situation?” she asks.
“Yeah, that’s what the Loco used to wipe out the Blood Reign, or so that’s what the rumor is.”
Mitzi tells him she can confirm that is true, but Big Al doesn’t seem impressed. The fat man adds, “And the local coroner was in on it. He’s now retired, skipped town and changed his name.”
The Team fixer says she would pay more anymore information he has, but he replies it would be very expensive. She realizes this and doesn’t have the money. Big Al does challenge her to a pool game and takes her for €200. He does let it drop that the Loco is using local juvie gangs to keep eyes on the NCART station for any threats (and she is a threat). Mitzi decides to go talk to the local 1%er motorcycle gang, the Thunder Gods. She heads down to Valhalla, their clubhouse in the east end of the 88th Street neighborhood. Mitzi is refused entry until she tells them she has some information. They let her in but say, “Your guard dogs (8-Ball and Fawkes) have to stay outside.”
Mitzi is brought into see the new club president. On seeing him she remembers that this man didn’t like her very much. Still, she tells him about the ‘Blue Goo’, the Voodoo Boyz moving in and her fear that the gang is trying to take over leadership of all the Night City gangs. She ends by telling him, “I wanted to let you know because I like you all.”
The gang lord leans forward with a leer and replies, “Yeah? How much do you like me?”
Mitzi says she doesn’t know what he means by that which elicits a laugh from the president and two of his bodyguards. She is brought in the main club room and given a beer. Two beers are sent outside for 8-Ball and Fawkes. Mitzi is able to engage a few of the bikers she knows and it is clear that this gang has no problem with Loco and the Voodoo Boyz as long as they stay on their side of Boswell Avenue.
The fixer finishes her beer and the three go around to people she knows in her old neighborhood, but no one really knows anything more. In fact, it is clear that Mitzi has more information than most anyone on the street.
That evening, 8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson.
***
Tuesday, December 13, 2072
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons, and after that there is another meeting to discuss the upcoming tour. Mitzi has purchased a number of sets of Militech EMA-1 armor with the M-88 Combat helmet. Since there are three bands and the Universal Records staff to guard and eight members of Whyte Hat. Each group gets 2 members of Whyte Hat as guardians. The group divides up this way:
Heartthrobs: 8-Ball (Mk IV (revised) & Hollow (Dragon)
Death Merchants: Cossack (Dragon) & Jamal (Dragon)
Cyber Revolutionaries: Mitzi (Dragon) & Rue (FN-RAL w/40mm GL)
Universal Records Staff: Fawkes (Mk IV (revised) w/40mm GL) & Angel (Dragon)
The company also decides to purchase some more combat armor and 40mm launched grenades.
At the end of the meeting Suzy and Samantha hem and haw a bit. Finally, Suzy tells the group, “Well, Samantha and I have a little ‘side hustle’ going. We do some work for, let’s just say, the government. We are going to test a couple of these projects on the trip and if we give you access to it, you can never tell anyone about it.”
Suzy tells them about the Tactical Battle Mapper 2.93 project. In essence, this project takes information fed into it from drones and other sensors puts it through an intelligent (INT 3) visual & audio recognition program and displays it on a map of the surrounding area that can be seen on a correctly coded Times2, Times2 Plus or Video Imager to give the receiver a view to the battle area and can identify threats and enemy locations to all if at least a single sensor can detect it. It is highly experimental and very Top Secret, but Suzy has gotten permission for the Team to field test the proto type. The two young women hand out a set of Smartgoggles and let people look at a replay of their last mission in Detroit. They have a little entity called B&B Technologies, which is a DARPA funded company. Suzy says, “If you haven’t guessed B & B stands for Suzy Barnes and Samantha Burke.”
Samantha corrects her, “No, it stands for Samantha Burke and Suzy Barnes.”
Suzy smiles, rolls her eyes, “Whatever.”
Everyone agrees to participate and the young women get down to making sure they have the proper gear to link into the system.
***
Wednesday, December 14, 2072:
Work continues on the Armadillo and 8-Ball’s Bermuda at Suzy’s garage. In the evening 8-Ball has his Mandarin Lesson.
***
Thursday, December 15, 2072:
Preparation of the vehicles for the tour continues at Suzy’s garage. Now that the Team knows about the Tactical Battlemapper all of the electronics being loaded into the Armadillo is making more sense. The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons in the evening.
***
Friday, December 16, 2072:
Final Exams for the Night City University Fall Semester start. Suzy and Samantha are busy with these. 8-Ball’s Bermuda motorcycle is finally finished. Angel begins to prepare the old Whyte Hat van with a trailer hitch for the small flatbed trailer they will be hauling on the tour.
***
Saturday, December 17, 2072:
Work continues on the vehicles for the tour in Suzy’s garage. The two young female NET / Tech types take some of their final exams.
***
Sunday, December 18, 2072:
By now Angel and Cossack realize that Samantha and Suzy have hooked up an INT 3 portable computer to most of the new electronics and the weapons systems which have been installed in upgraded turrets. The two computer hackers load lots of custom code into the systems they have put together.
The last band rehearsal is held for the Cyber Revolutionaries at the still closed South Beach Hotel. Team meets with Nancy Chang, the Universal Records tour manager and finds out that Jennifer Jones (Bambi) of the World News Service (WNS) will be the media on the trip. Both Samantha and Suzy are disturbed by this news and state that they don’t what this woman anywhere around them.
Bambi and her cameraman will be doing a special documentary on the entire tour. The members of the three bands are contractually obligated to participate, but the Team will have to sign releases to be involved in that part of the project. They can only have their faces shown or be talked about if they sign or the issue is a legitimate, newsworthy event. Everyone has a few days to make the decision if they want to be involved in the documentary.
***
Monday, December 19, 2072:
Mitzi buys a small trailer to haul their gear for the tour and Angel’s trailer hitch works so they take it back to the garage where Mouse gives it a temporary license plate. He will take care of the permanent plate while they are gone. 8-Ball has his last Mandarin Lesson before the tour leaves.
***
Tuesday, December 20, 2072:
Samantha and Suzy finish their final exams. Everyone packs for tomorrow’s jump off. They will all gather with the three tour busses (one for each band), the equipment big rig and the Team’s escort vehicles at a truck stop at the northern edge of North Oak. The Team has their last Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons with Mary, Linda & Kathleen until they return in a couple of weeks.
***
Wednesday, December 21, 2072:
Fall Term at Night City University ends and the winter (Christmas) vacation begins. Celestine has her new motorcycle test.
At the rally point, Cossack calls a meeting of the drivers. Nobody is carrying anything too dangerous (explosive). Sully, the driver for the Death Merchants, say his band is really nuts, but only has small arms. The other drivers report the same. Samantha says nobody should attempt to touch or enter their Armadillo; it has defenses. Cossack says, “Right, everyone keeps away from the “Death Bunnies’ van.”
Cossack looks around and spies Bambi’s bodyguard, Stepan Danolovitch, one of Vyacheslav Morozov’s men he knew from the Ukraine and one of the bodyguards that came to Night City when Morozov tried to blackmail Marty Lupescu. Cossack heads over to him and Stepan sees him too. The enforcer / sniper puts on a big smile and approaches Cossack with his arms wide expecting a big hug. Cossack stiff arms the hug.
Stepan looks surprised and says, “Hey, I’m the one who should be mad at you.”
Cossack answers, “Mad about what?”
Stepan’s voice lowers and he says, “Oh, come on, that bitch you used to work for (Marty) killed Vyacheslav, my old boss.”
“First of all,” Cossack replies in an angry tone. “Marty is dead; second, if you defame her again, I will shoot you in the head; and third, how do I know you weren’t involved in the recent attack on me while picking up Celestin at the Ukrainian prison.”
Stepan looks confused, “What attack? I haven’t been in the Ukraine in over a year. When Morozov got killed, Lev (Vyacheslav’s right hand man, Lev Zadinsky) threw me under the bus and said I must have been involved in Vyacheslav’s death. I had to flee for my life. I am the one who should be mad at you. Jennifer Jones (Bambi) looked me up and gave me this job.”
Cossack’s fellow Ukrainian looks back to make sure Bambi isn’t in earshot and continues, “The woman is very interested in all of you. She searched me out and offered me a lot of money to be her bodyguard on this gig. What was I going to do, say no? Morozov’s death and Lev’s accusations has made it hard for me to get a decent job. What happened in the Ukraine?”
“Ask Bambi,” Cossack tells Stepan, “I’m going to keep my eye on you.”
“I guess I will have to keep my eye on you too, since you have some kind of hair across your ass,” the fellow Ukrainian replies and walks away. Bambi is watching (and perhaps listening to) this exchange very carefully. The media has long suspected that there is much more to this team than is publicly known and she intends to get to the bottom of it all.
Celestin comes up to Cossack and asks who that was. The driver asks if Stepan was one of the men with Vyacheslav Morozov visited Celestin in prison. No, he wasn’t and Celestin describes Lev Zadinsky as the man who was with the late Ukrainian mob boss.
Everyone speaks to the bands they are supposed to be protecting and works out the order of vehicles. As they are ready to leave, Samantha brings out a Bell “Bumblebee” Rotorcraft, Suzy takes control and launches it. At this point, the column heads out at noon to their first stop on the tour: Oakland Auditorium / Coliseum Show. This is a huge all day festival with many local bands, the Universal Records Tour and being headlined by Jack Entropy! They arrive at 5:30 pm and are directed to their own parking lot close to the craft services tent.
As the Team and the bands set up their area, Bambi comes up with the video releases to be signed. Mitzi, Fawkes, 8-Ball, Angel and Hollow all sign. Rue, Jamal and Cossack decline. Bambi looks at Celestin, Samantha and Suzy and tells them with a smirk, “I don’t need your signatures since you are with the band.”
Celestin is fine with it, but Suzy walks up to the media and whispers something in her ear. All the color drains out of the Bambi’s face. Suzy and Samantha walk off together and talk quietly. Everyone, but Fawkes and Angel get cleaned up and head to the craft services tent. Some on the Team see and hear the Death Merchants following Celestin, Samantha and Suzy. These men are making comment on how they are going to ‘bang their tight little asses’ before the tour is out. Celestin and Samantha just ignore them, but a rather annoyed Suzy looks back at them. Mitzi knows that look on her friend’s face. It is a look she gives just before she hurts someone, badly!
Mitzi comes up behind the Death Merchants and says, “You know you’re being rude.”
Attila, the Hulk, tells her, “Fuck those cunts, if they can’t take a joke.”
“Those women can wipe the floor with your asses,” the fixer tells them.
“You’re not our boss, bitch and we’re not on the road now,” Genghis Kan snaps back.
Cossack asks Hernando, the Death Merchant’s manager, rather loudly, if he has a back-up band ready when his band gets beaten down by the ladies. Hernando just thinks the idea that they (the girls) can do that is laughable, but does tell the Death Merchants to cut it out, which they do. Everyone chows down. The Death Merchants keep watching the girls. Samantha and Celestin ignore them, but Suzy looks like she is planning on how to hurt them. When Celestin, Samantha and Suzy head back to the tour’s parking area, Atilla and Genghis Kan decide to follow them. Cossack and Mitzi also head out and find Suzy right in the two men’s faces and threatening to remove their ‘manhood’. When the two Death Merchants hear Cossack and Mitzi right behind them, they turn their heads slightly and Suzy tries to kick one in the balls. However, she botches her kick and lands her shot right into Cossack’s crotch. The Ukrainian drops to his knees. The two Death Merchants burst out laughing and back off. Celestin rushes up to see if Cossack is OK; he is just really sore. Suzy is horrified and keeps apologizing all the back to the tour’s parking area.
***
Thursday, December 22, 2072:
There is a security alert about 3 am, but it is just a bunch of kids trying to sneak in. 8-Ball gets all his security up, but this minor disturbance doesn’t come close to them. The rest of the night is very quiet. This morning’s breakfast is real food! There are huge crowds coming.
At 11am the festival starts with some short sets by a number of local bands. Mitzi remembers something from her recent trip to the old neighborhood and tells Suzy that Big Al said to say hello. The girl has to think for a minute and then obviously remembers the man. A look of disgust crosses her face as she says, “Oh, God, not that pig!”
It gets to midafternoon and the bands of the Universal Records Tour are up. At 2 pm, the Heartthrobs will open up for these touring bands. They are warmly received. At 3 pm, the Death Merchants come on and put on a great show. A lot of their Chromer fans are in attendance so the audience reaction is tremendous. At 4 pm it is the Cyber Revolutionaries set and they also get the house rocking, but clearly don’t have the loud Chromer fans that the Death Merchants brought out. They are off by 5 pm and followed by three well known west coast bands doing slightly longer sets.
At 9 pm, Jack Entropy, the headliner hits the stage and the crowd goes wild. All of the other musicians that played today are back stage as none want to miss this. There are encores, of course, and Jack calls up Donny Clark, the guitarist for the Cyber Revolutionaries to play, and Loco Skysinger, Samantha and Suzy to sing back up while the girls also dance with the super star. They all know the songs. The Death Merchants, who did get the better audience reaction, are furious! This so pisses the heavy metal band off and they don’t attend afterparty. All the other bands do attend since the Rock press is out in force. Clearly Jack Entropy and the Cyber Revolutionaries know each other from before. They opened for him a few years ago in Night City. The rock star is especially taken by both Samantha and Suzy, especially is their ‘barely there’ dance costumes. Both young women let Jack take certain ‘liberties’ that they normally wouldn’t tolerate from anyone else, but he is famous and they have known him for years. Jack also remembers Mitzi from them and talks her up too. Bambi and her cameraman Scotty catch the entire show and get invited to the after party.
***
Friday, December 23, 2072:
In the morning the tour is on the road to Sacramento. It isn’t a long ride and their show will be at Sacramento’s venerable rock club, the Ace of Spades. There is a large fenced in parking lot in the back and the chain link fence is also covered with ballistic cloth. It takes a little work, but all the vehicles can park there. The opening show tonight sees the groups shuffle the order with the Cyber Revolutionaries opening. The Heartthrobs move up to the second slot and the Death Merchants become the (featured) closing act. The club has its own security and tells Whyte Hat that they are responsible for getting their bands to the stage area and then back to their buses when their set is over. The club staff will work with the band’s tech and club security will maintain order.
They have plenty time before the show. So, Samantha and Suzy go to the Shady Lady Saloon next door to the club for a liquid lunch. The two young women are weaving a little on their return. Atilla laughs at Suzy, who flips him off, but that is all.
The Cyber Revolutionaries start the show and fire up the audience. The Heartthrobs go on second but the audience isn’t really in to their schtick. Celestin, Samantha and Suzy go out in the audience to watch the Heartthrobs because the three do like their music. Towards the end of that group’s set, the audience is getting a little rowdy so the girls head back out to where the vehicles are parked. The Death Merchants fans are starting to show up. Bambi and Scotty are catching all of the show.
The Death Merchant’s come on and soon their fans start to fight with another Chromer gang. One of the other Chromers insults Genghis Kan and he dives off the stage. Atilla immediately follows him into battle. Vlad, the Railer, joins the fray screaming (in Romanian) “Death to the Turks!”
Only John Wayne Gracie, the clown just smiles in the back. Jamal tries to get Genghis to stop, but, no the man is totally consumed. Atilla is organizing the fans to drive the rival Chromers from the club. Cossack succeeds in getting Vlad back to his bus and heads back towards the club. In the back parking lot Bambi is launching a small drone to get some shots of the riot that has now spilled into the street. Cossack heads inside to help Jamal, who is now engaged with three crazed Chromers. Multiple sirens are heard approaching as the police come in force. The Death Merchants succeed in driving out the rival Chromers into the street. Their fans pursue, but the band itself is lured out to the back parking lot by the club staff with pitchers of free beer.
The club is now closed and poor Igor has to lug all the Death Merchants’ gear out himself. Cossack feels bad so he helps the little dwarf lug out the gear. Bambi is doing a live broadcast on the ongoing riot for her network. Cossack comes outside in that back parking lot and sees the Armadillo “a’ rocking”. It seems Loco Skysinger and Suzy are hooking up, again. Those two have been ‘friends with benefits’ for years. The Ukrainian now starts to worry where Celestin is, so he checks the Cyber Revolutionaries bus. Celestin is in that bus and that band is totally unaware that there is a riot going on in the street in front of the club. The back parking lot remains secure and the police succeed in clearing the street.
***
Saturday, December 24, 2072:
The tour leaves very early AM for Reno, NV and a Christmas Eve Show at the Grand Sierra Resort there. They arrive just before noon and are directed to an area in the large parking lot to park there vehicles. A truck pulls up to their parking area and the drivers are all issued automatic weapons and Rusty gets an 8 round 40mm GL. These are rental weapons and must be returned when they leave Nevada.
Next: Episode 36 – Universal Records Christmas Tour Continues
-
As you make your plans on what to do in Episode 65, I thought I would write up all the important items you discovered during the previous episode. In the just finished Episode 64, the Team sent a small surveillance team (Tai and Suzy in disguise) to check out the East Exit Club where Gordo, the fixer who hired the Steel Mamluks, hangs out on the evening of Wednesday, October 7th. The two learn that Gordo was there last Sunday in the late afternoon (after the Steel Mamluks were exterminated). He got a phone call and left immediately. He hasn’t been back since. The pair also learned that Gordo has a girlfriend who is a barmaid at the East Exit Club and get her address. Cossack and J.J. Hunter drive to the East Exit Club and bring Tai and Suzy their pistols. They then go to visit the girlfriend, who lives in Freedom Park, to talk with her. Cossack and J.J. park around the corner out of sight while Suzy and Tai go up to the barmaid’s fourth floor apartment. While there another team shows up to ‘extract or kill’ the girlfriend. The Team has a brief firefight in which they wound two of this new opposition team and escape with Gordo’s girlfriend’s sister, Hillary, who has important information that proves helpful.
The following day, thanks to Jamal’s and Rue’s autopsy identifications of the three who tried to kill 8-Ball and Mia (and Suzy making a large five figure payment to InfoComp), Mitsy is able to identify the Team that tried to kill those two. By using her extensive local contacts, she also gets a couple of addresses to check. The Team divides in two and moves to sweep up the three remaining members of that team. While trying to pick up the opposition NET Runner, Tai, Suzy, J.J. Hunter and Cossack run into the other half of the ‘cleaner team’ they tangled with yesterday. They kill four of the five members of that group. The other half of that ‘cleaner team’, beats 8-Ball, Jamal, Sarge, the Swede and Crusher to their targets. However, the NCPD is on scene by the time the Team arrives. The ‘cleaners’ have fled, but not before killing the target Techie they were seeking and putting the remaining solo, now in police custody, into a ‘lead’ coma.
Kristen Thorsen, the captured NET Runner, accepts the Team’s offer to tell all she knows in exchange for her life, and gives up the fixer who hired them. He is Allen Cooper, who works out of the Mortuary in Night City’s, Center City. Allen Cooper is watching this situation very closely and is aware that the Team now has a prisoner who can turn him in to Mitsy. This fixer has also heard of Mitsy’s announced offer to give a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card to anyone who helps identify who is behind the attacks in San Morro. This contract has been a complete botch job for Allen Cooper and he is under a lot of pressure to ‘fix the situation‘, so he contacts Mitsy and arranges to meet with her very publicly at the Saturday, October 10th show where the Cyber Revolutionaries are headlining at the Café Chrome! In exchange for ceasing his support for the attacks in San Morro and a mutual peace agreement between him and Whyte Hat, Allen Cooper names the person who ordered and paid for these attacks. It is ‘Big Al’ Crenshaw of the Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association. Now this exchange is all done with Allen not admitting to actually being involved. (I heard, rumor has it, etc.) He chooses his words carefully so as not to incriminating himself.
[GM Note: Although Allen Cooper doesn’t come out a say it directly, he hints that Big Al is a little behind in his payments for Allen’s continued services. Also, perhaps Crenshaw wasn’t entirely forthcoming about the possible opposition his operation might face. The fixer doesn’t know why Big Al ordered these attacks. The ‘why’ wasn’t important to the man.]
From bits of this conversation, the testimony of Kristen Thorsen and files taken from that NET Runner’s apartment, Mitsy and the Team are able to deduce that Big Al is behind most, if not all, the recent bombings in San Morro. There is lots of circumstantial evidence, but nothing that is seriously actionable by the NCPD or the normal authorities.
Sunday, October 11, 2076:
From what Snowyn has said, the players have been discussing their next moves, so I feel that I should give you some more information to help you with your plans (so I can plan too). This is what you learn on Sunday, October 11th, the day after the meeting with Allen Cooper and the Cyber Revolutionaries’ show at the Café Chrome. Crusher and the Swede insist that Sarge be kept in the loop about all decisions regarding how to deal with the attacks on his club house and the restaurant. Celestine, Suzy and the band are ecstatic about the media coverage of their show and share it with the Team. Here the downside of meeting in public even if no one can hear what you say. There are a couple of pictures with Mitsy and Allen Cooper sitting together and talking at the show. Although Mitsy and Allen Cooper’s picture is in the background, these pictures are all over the Night City media in stories about the Café Chrome show.
That evening (October 11th), Suzy gets a phone call from a friend of hers, Athena, who many on the Team met once before. She is a NET Runner and leader of an all-female boostergang, the Valkyries. Athena has been contacted by Morgan from Freedom Park, whom she knows. He wants a meeting on grounds that both sides can trust. So, Athena has offered to host a ‘luncheon’. Afterwards, Morgan and Mitsy can have a private talk, alone. The luncheon guests will be Mitsy, Suzy and Morgan. Each will be allowed to bring a plus one for the meal. No guns, destructive devices or heavy armor is to be worn. Small concealed blades can be brought. Suzy totally trusts Athena and has worked with her on and off for years. Her Valkyries will guard the meet. Athena’s suggestion is that the meeting take place ASAP. She and the Valkyries can be ready by tomorrow, October 12th.
[GM Notes: Now, a little Out-of-Game explanation on why this is happening. Morgan is a gang lord and high level fixer (among other skills), so he is certainly aware of the general goings on in San Morro. The attack on Mary & Linda’s Restaurant, the bombing at the Chrome Berets HQ, the extermination of the Steel Mamluks and Mitsy putting ‘the word out’ that she is offering a ‘pass’ as she hunts down those responsible for the South Beach attacks will have certainly reached his ears. When the Team went to pick up Gordo’s girlfriend (and found her sister instead), they entered Freedom Park. I did point out when you walked up to the girlfriend’s building that the Raven, the tall building that Morgan uses for his HQ, could be seen just a couple of blocks away. On receiving the invitation from Athena, Suzy had a drone with x20 optical sensor look at the top of the Raven, and as she suspected there are cameras on the top of the building. The Team had a brief exchange of gunfire with the ‘cleaner team’ before the Whyte Hat people made off with the sister. All of this was clearly in sight of the cameras on the Raven’s roof. Now, there is no way that any Team member (or the now repainted vehicle) can be identified at that distance, but the list of teams in the area with the skills to snatch an extractee from under the noses of a world class cleaner team is very, very small and Mitsy is known to be on the rampage to hunt down those who committed the South Beach attacks.]
Notes From Previous Posts About Goings on in San Morro
I realize that keeping track of everything that has happened in 64 Episodes is tough, so I have tried to pull out all the posts regarding Morrison Square, Freedom Park, Devil’s Night and what was happening when you all were in Elko County, Nevada.
Saturday, September 3, 2072: NIGHT CITY – South Beach is attacked from Combat Zones to the north. One strike group broke off from the mobs attacking Morrison Square and comes down Kramer Street towards South Beach. Cossack fires up his GevHog and he along with Hollow, the Swede and Jake head towards Kramer Street to reinforce South Beach Security and a couple of Chrome Berets. There they repulse this group which is led by the booster gang, the Feral Folk. A second attacking group led by the cyborg Alpha (Dog) One tries to rush the 157th Street Bridge with a large mixed group of combat zone gangers (including a few surviving Storm Kings). They were stopped by Jamal, Mitsy, Suzy, 8-Ball, Crusher, Jacko and two NCPD officers. The large group coming across the bridge then gets attacked in their rear by Wu Deng’s Tong Enforcers.
Sunday, October 30, 2072: NIGHT CITY – Devil’s Night attack of South Beach repulsed by Team, the Chrome Berets and South Beach Security. This is the last Devil’s Night attack that attempted to strike at South Beach.
Monday, October 30, 2073: NIGHT CITY – Devil’s Night attack strikes the Morrison Square Neighborhood. No attacker moves on to South Beach.
Tuesday, October 31, 2073: NIGHT CITY – Morrison Square Security Group request assistance from South Beach Security to clear out a few remaining gangs that still remain in the area. South Beach sends help to Morrison Square.
Tuesday, October 30, 2074: NIGHT CITY – Again, there is a Devil’s Night attack strikes the Morrison Square Neighborhood, and, like the previous year, no attacker moves on to South Beach. Morrison Square Security Group is overwhelmed and again requests assistance from South Beach Security. SBS responds and helps the drive off the looters and rioters.
Thursday, February 14, 2075: NIGHT CITY – In the Morrison Square neighborhood just north of South Beach, a Valentine’s Day Festival is overrun by rampaging street gangs from further north and west of that neighborhood. The Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association’s security force (Morrison Square Security Group) is able to barely contain the violence. That association blames the crime lord from the Freedom Square neighborhood just to their north for the attack, but police surveillance at the time shows all the attackers came from areas on the other side of the highway (east); not Freedom Park. South Beach was unaffected by this spate of violence.
Wednesday, March 13, 2075: NIGHT CITY – The Night City council votes to build a wall along the south side of 150th Street by sealing up all the windows on those building fronting the south side of the street and sealing off all north south roads but two. The wall will be maintained by the Morrison Square Security Group, and will run from the Pacific Ocean to the fence under the Interstate 16 Loop. This will turn the Freedom Park neighborhood into a semi-walled combat zone.
Tuesday, March 26, 2075: NIGHT CITY – Construction begins on the wall to separate the Freedom Park neighborhood and Morrison Square. The NCPD has to assign a permanent C-SWAT unit to back up local security as the gangs attack the construction crews. This whole project is very unpopular in the San Morro area (except in Morrison Square) as it signals that the city is losing control. South Beach fears that property values may take a dive.
Monday, May 27, 2075: NIGHT CITY – Memorial Day; gangs from the Combat Zone and Freedom Park try to break the new 150th Street Wall mostly along the beach and by the highway. They attacks are easily contained, and don’t come near South Beach.
Wednesday, October 30, 2075: NIGHT CITY – Devil’s Night attack Morrison Square is stopped cold when it reaches the 150th Street Wall.
Saturday, April 18, 2076: NIGHT CITY – Henry Scott, Big Al’s chief accountant died of a drug overdose. It was Henry Scott that arranged city financing for the construction of the wall along 150th Street which turned Freedom Park into a ‘semi’ walled combat zone.
Monday, June 16, 2076: NIGHT CITY – Andrea, a combat cyborg who served as Big Al’s chief enforcer, defects to Alpha’s Steel Legion, a gang of cyborgs based in the southern part of the Night City Combat Zone. This cyborg gang numbers about a dozen and works freelance for a number of both international Mega-Corps and local Night City Corporations. This gang of dangerous cyborgs is led by Alpha (Dog) One, who used to work for Marco Baronti.
Saturday, July 25, 2076: NIGHT CITY – Alistair ‘Little Al’ Crenshaw Jr., son and heir of Alistair ‘Big Al’ Crenshaw, the President of the Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association, is killed outside the Rainbow Nights by some unknown street punks. Big Al suspects that Morgan, his rival in the Freedom Park neighborhood to his north arranged the killing.
Sunday, August 30, 2076: NIGHT CITY – There is a bombing of a warehouse on the docks of San Morro. The explosion obliterates the warehouse and damages a number of other buildings along with a nearby dock. 8-Ball, Cossack (and Mitsy) know this warehouse since this is where they delivered the stolen cash shipment from Marco Baronti back in May of 2071.
OK, here is some more info. I would suggest talking amongst yourselves and have Mitsy attend the meeting with Morgan. The Freedom Park leader's plus one is Roscoe, his chief enforcer. This tall and quiet man is African American and a top solo. Morgan will not talk any business with anyone except alone with Mitsy and will insist on scanning the meeting room for electronic listening devices. He will expect Mitsy to do the same. Let Snowyn know what to ask about. It would be good to get this done by this coming Friday so I am not rushed preparing the next session. This is a situation in which the players will be directing where this is going.
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First and foremost, it is unfortunate that Mike can’t make it this Saturday, but if TigerGuard is available we can play with who we have. In fact, it makes good game sense that 8-Ball wouldn’t take part in what is upcoming this Saturday. We are restarting less than 24 hours after someone tried to murder 8-Ball, but only succeeded in almost killing Mia. At this point the solo would be at his wife’s side as she is still in intensive care. I will be sending everyone IPs by tomorrow (hopefully). So, if TigerGuard is available for this Saturday, then we are a go!
Situation in San Morro – 10/7/2076
I am continuing to work on a small map of the San Morro area of Night City. Hopefully I will have it finished by the time we meet next, but for now, here is some information about the area in which you live. The Team lives in the South Beach area which is the southwestern most point of Night City. This neighborhood is protected from the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. To the east is San Morro Creek with only 3 bridges crossing it south of the Interstate 16 Loop. The neighborhood to your north is known as Morrison Square and is run by Big Al Crenshaw and his Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association. This man is the local gang lord for that area. Just to north of Morrison Square along the coast is Freedom Park, which is now has a wall between them and Morrison Square. This is an anarchistic area that takes its cue from their local boss who is just known as Morgan. Big Al Crenshaw and Morgan have been feuding for years. These two men despise each other.
To the immediate east of South Beach across San Morro Creek is the Team’s old neighborhood when they worked for Marty. The southern half of that neighborhood is run by the Tong and its leader Wu Deng, and the northern half is defended by the Knights of Saint Spyridon and various paint ball teams. From the Tong neighborhood north to the Interstate 16 Loop there are mostly businesses, offices and some small factories. Just under half of those businesses are protected by Militech contract. There are NO gangs in this area. San Morro Park, which stretches from the south shore to one block from the Interstate 16 Loop, is just to the east of the Tong neighborhood. That is also protected by Militech. To the east of that park is the responsibility of the Night City Police Department (San Morro Precinct). This includes the San Morro Piers and dockyards.
There are a few small gangs in San Morro proper and they are mostly down by the water near the port facilities. The largest are the Roaring Dragons, a Bosozoku gang, centered round a few blocks near the beach and port facilities. They have never been a problem for South Beach. Wu Deng and the Tong have issues with the Roaring Dragons, but they Japanese bikers steer clear of the Tong enforcers and the Militech ACPA suit in San Morro Park. There are also a few juvie gangs in San Morro proper, but they are a zero threat.
The non-allied Power Players in San Morro
Night City Police Department: The San Morro Precinct is undermanned and overworked. They are in this area only to protect the area around the NCART station south to the ocean and east of San Morro Park, and the highway. They will also respond to attacks on the water and sewer plant just to the north of the Freedom Park area.
Night City Water & Sewer Department: Their main facility is located in some swampy land just north of Freedom Park. Access to the plant is by way of the Freedom Park 16 Interstate Loop exit. Morgan buys some protection from the city by guaranteeing that the Freedom Park exit and entrance ramps remain open at all times.
Harbor Police: They patrol the San Morro dockyards, but mostly from water borne menaces. This leads them into occasional conflict with the NCPD. Their latest turf war was over the bombing of a warehouse at the docks which the Harbor Police won. They have made little headway on that case.
Militech: This corporation’s presence in San Morro dates back about 50 years ago to the Fourth Corporate War between Militech and Arasaka. When the war came to an end, both Militech and Arasaka were frozen into their current security contracts in the city. Militech has kept up its contracts in San Morro to keep their eyes on the old Arasaka ‘fief’ of Morrison Square. About 5 years ago Big Al got the Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association to cancel the Arasaka contract and give the security contract to his own Morrison Square Protective Services. Militech was considering moving out of San Morro until B&B Technologies and Arasaka signed an agreement to build a small manufacturing facility on the South Beach / Morrison Square line. With the arrival of Arasaka security to guard that new plant, Militech has decided to stay.
Arasaka: Big Black isn’t the evil corporation bent of world domination that it was 50 years ago under Saburo Arasaka, but their rivalry with Militech remains unabated. This corporation has been quietly supportive of Whyte Hat, but there is NO formal alliance of any kind. This isn’t surprising since Mitzi was a student of Honzo Kitagawa, a high ranking Arasaka official, and both Suzy’s biological and step-fathers were Arasaka security officials. Besides these two young women, pretty much the entire team has taken Martial Arts lessons from Jake Kitagawa, Honzo’s nephew and spiritual heir.
Big Al Crenshaw of Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association: This man is the mob boss and businessman who runs Morrison Square. He is reputed to be behind or have a piece of every organized criminal group in the Morrison Square area. South Beach Security believes Big Al and/or his people are responsible for at least half of all the crime in South Beach. Now South Beach Security has come to the aid of Crenshaw’s Morrison Square Protective Services at times, especially in regards to attacks coming from the combat zones to the north. The recent construction of the 152nd Street wall has cut off Freedom Park and turned it into a semi-walled zone. This has outraged the people of Freedom Park and quite a number in the adjoining neighborhoods. However, the wall has reduced the number of gangs coming south to rave and rampage.
Morgan of the Freedom Park Resident’s Association: His true name and origins are unknown, but Morgan is a skilled fighter and charismatic personality. The Freedom Park area is an anarchistic neighborhood. There are a number of criminal gangs, 1% bikers (the Bastard Brood), black cyber clinics and rave clubs packed in along the west coast between the Water & Sewer Plant, Morrison Square and the Interstate 16 Loop. The Freedom Park Neighborhood Association (Morgan is the president) serves as the only authority in this area. The man doesn’t ‘control’ the area with brute force but rather by force of personality. While he is one of the prime movers behind the local Devil’s Night Celebrations” (riots). He doesn’t actually lead or direct them, usually.
Your History with Devil’s Night: It was four years ago that the Team had to defend against the last Devil’s Night attack on South Beach. None of the rioters even made it into South Beach before being stopped by the combined Team, Chrome Berets and South Beach Security forces. This is where the Team captured a punknaught which became the Dacian Wolf. In the three following years there were also attacks. On Devil’s Night in 2073, sections of Morrison Square were overrun, but no gangs attempted to enter South Beach. By 2074, the wall along 150th Street was built and the Devil’s Night rioters that year were stopped cold. In 2075, there was NO attack on the wall in Morrison Square, but still, there were explosions and fires at businesses connected with the Morrison Square Businessmen’s Association. Ever since you repulsed that first attack back in 2072, No Devil’s Night rioters have ever entered South Beach. Only in 2073 did South Beach Security send a small force into Morrison Square, but only after the Morrison Square Protective Service requested assistance. Whyte Hat doesn’t ‘sit at any table’ with the Morrison Square group. As a reminder Devil’s Night is coming up at the end of the current game month (October, 2076).
The last gang attack coming south from Freedom Park occurred last Monday, May 27th on Memorial Day. It didn’t breach the 150th Street wall so didn’t even get near South Beach.
A Few Answers to Previous Questions: Whyte Hat has NO alliance with Big Al and Morrison Square. Yes, South Beach Security and some Whyte Hat personnel have answered calls for assistance in putting down rioters in Morrison Square since this action was in defense of innocent civilians. Also, Whyte Hat has NO alliance with Arasaka. Arasaka Security guards a factory that manufactures components for the small squad version of the Tactical Battle Mapper. It is B&B Technologies that has a working relationship with Arasaka. It is true that both Arasaka and a representative of the Morrison Square Protective Service were at the initial tactical security meeting after the attack on the restaurant and the Chrome Berets, but they have been kept out the loop since that first meeting.
Just before the jump off to the East Exit Club, Suzy informs a small group of people of some information she has been cleared to tell them. This is told to Mitzi, Cossack, Tai and 8-Ball. The recent bombing of the warehouse in San Morro used EMP grenades from the same source as the one’s used to cripple the surveillance systems at Mary and Linda’s Restaurant. The warehouse that was blown up was owned and operated (through many cut outs) by the Central Intelligence Agency. This explosion was so big because a shipment of high grade explosives was detonated by a smaller charge set off on the outside wall of the building. Suzy has been given a National Security letter to do whatever is necessary to get to the bottom of this attack. This is how she got hold of all the braindance equipment and the two ‘associates’ that helped prepare the surviving Steel Mamluks for questioning by the Team. I will also point out that NO ONE saw exactly what Suzy and her associates did to the two interrogation suspects. The Agency has a line on where those EMP grenades came from and are looking into that separately.
Yes, the Central Intelligence Agency has taken a great interest in this Team. You have worked for them both knowingly and unknowingly. Suzy, who is half owner of Whyte Hat, is retired C.I.A., but does anyone really just retire? Fortunately, the agency is only interested in National Security threats, which they view the bombing of their warehouse as. The Agency has used the Team in the past for which you were well compensated. This relationship could become problematic in the future, or not.
So Here is Where We Start on Saturday:
So, on the evening of Wednesday, October 7th, Suzy and Tai put on disguises, go to the East Exit Club to try to find ‘Gordo’, the fixer. If he is there, the plan will be to scoop him up as he leaves the club that night. The rest of the Team will be brought in for that. Well, that is the plan. What happens is Jules (aka Suzy) and ‘whoever’ (aka Tai) spend a few hours listening to music, dancing (well Suzy anyway) and talking to people. They learn that Gordo isn’t there and hasn’t been since late last Sunday afternoon when he got a phone call and left very quickly. That was just a few hours after the Team exterminated the Steel Mamluks. No one knows where he lives (he keeps several ‘hidey holes’ around). Also, Gordo is usually around here conduction business at times like these, so something is definitely NOT right.
The fixer does have a girlfriend, Skye Pollini, who is a part-time bartender at this club on weekends. Suzy gets her address, but it is in Freedom Park proper, which makes any operation there problematic. She decides that it would probably be best for just her and Tai to go there and just talk. Cossack and J.J. Hunter will bring one of the company’s unmarked cars (an armored shit box) and park around the corner. These two bring handguns for Jules (Suzy) and (Tai). Cossack and J.J. will remain in the car parked around the corner from the target 4th floor apartment. Suzy will talk with Skye and see if she has any information on Gordo’s whereabouts. If necessary she will be carrying a slap patch with a strong sedative, just in case. A small surveillance drone will watch from above.
So, Suzy and Tai go to Skye Pollini’s apartment. A frightened young woman is there and it takes Suzy a bit of time to talk her way in, but Tai has to wait outside in the hall. The woman in the apartment isn’t Skye, but rather her younger sister, Hillary. This young woman has her bag packed to leave. Gordo was here Monday and picked up Skye. They were supposed to be back yesterday. Hillary didn’t like the look of the people Gordo and her sister left with and she was told to hide when those sketchy people came into the apartment. Also, she just got a call from a friend at the East Exit Club telling her that some serious looking men were just there looking for her.
OK, at this point it is clear trouble is coming and at that moment a dark colored van pulls up in front of the apartment building and six heavily armed men dressed in black get out. Five enter the building and one (the driver) stands guard outside the vehicle. Outside in the Team’s car, the long guns are in the trunk, but it will take just a bit of time to get them. Upstairs, Suzy and Tai get notified and tell Hillary at she has more ‘guests’ incoming. That girl does have access to the working front door monitor and sees the men in black. She is now quite willing to go with the two Team members talking with her. This is where we start on Saturday.
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And we're back!!!
We have Episode 64 coming up next Saturday. Here is a brief description of where we are in this current mess. Last week saw the Team destroy the booster gang, Steel Mamluks, who attacked Mary & Linda's Restaurant killing both women, Billy Ray and seven customers. The late captured gang leaders gave up the name of the fixer who hired them. This man, Gordo, works out of the East Exit Club just east of the Freedom Park neighborhood. The East Exit Club is run by a South Am War combat veteran, Harlan Crawford. This man is highly modified and is considered borderline cyberpsycho. He is surrounded by a small group of friends and associates, who are also very combat savvy. They keep the peace on the corner just east exit at the Interstate 16 Loop next to Freedom Park. Crawford was dishonorably discharged from the Army for striking a superior officer. He provides a place for local fixers to meet with their clients when needed. However, the man is a music fan and has bands in his club most nights. The East Exit Club has a no guns policy and a weapons scanner on the door. Concealed blades are acceptable.
From what I have been told, the Team next wishes to hunt down this Gordo to find out who is financing these attacks against the Chrome Berets. Your only clue is that he works out of the East Exit Club. Unfortunately, 8-Ball, Cossack, Mitzi and even Jamal are too well known in this area, not to be identified on entering the club. Mitzi has suggested sending in some people who are good at 'blending in', picking up information and seeing if and when Gordo comes into the club. A pick up Team can be ready when Gordo is spotted so the Team can sweep in and pick him up when he leaves. So, Suzy and Tai will don disguises (they both have excellent Disguise skills) on, so on the first evening when we restart (Thursday, October 8th) those two will go to the East Exit Club and see if Gordo is there. If he is then 8-Ball, Cossack and Jamal will be waiting some distance away in an unmarked car to snatch up that fixer when he leaves.
So, is this plan good for everyone? Let me know. Also, shoot me any questions you have. IPs for the last session (or two) will be out in a couple of days.
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We have actually had a new session last Saturday and started to use Roll20 since our previous VTT, ASTRAL, has ceased operation. We learned a lot of lessons trying out this new VTT (for us), so will the session was a bit 'clunky' we did manage to get through it fairly well. The important thing is, was that it was fun!
Anyway, here is Episode 60 - Venezuelan Vacation. I will continue posting the catch-up episodes in a somewhat abbreviated format, but I don't want to fall behind, so when a new one is played, I will post it ASAP. So here is our latest!
Episode 60 – Venezuela Vacation
The Team heads down to the islands and South America for a photo shoot with a Dutch Fashion House. There is much clubbing, swimming and fun had in the islands. In Venezuela a few bullets start to fly as local security forces keep a close eye on everyone. The Team does come out of it as local heroes before a quick stop in Aruba and home to Wells, Nevada.
Background
This Team was originally put together by Martina Lupescu / Vargas, who 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 that she found out had murdered her father. Marty got her revenge, but she lost 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) [Solo 9]: 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. They are now married. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years due to her anti-government activity. On her release she joined her boyfriend, Cossack, in the United States and is beginning her career as a Rocker.
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 Lupescu, 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.
Jamal Hemings [Medtech 9]: Jamal is now one of the Team Medics. He was born in a black working class neighborhood in Detroit in 2042. When Jamal was 15, his younger brother was killed by a cop for “playing with a toy gun while black.” This had a profound—though not immediately obvious—impact on Jamal. When he graduated from high school two years later at age 17, he joined the Navy. He entered the Navy SEALS where most of his work remains classified. It was Suzy that brought him into the company and the two are close. While his family is Moslem and his father was devout. His mother is more relaxed about prayer observances. So, Jamal did not learn Arabic initially, but has used his military educational opportunities to correct that. He is fluent now. As he grew older, he became more respectful of his religion.
Mia Byrnes Miller [Artist / Solo 3]: The young woman is a graduate of Night City University’s Fine Arts School. She found 8-Ball attractive and interesting initially because he had a Mohawk haircut in the style her soldier father wore. The girl idolized her dad and was crushed when he was killed in the South Am Wars by Cartel Forces. 8-Ball shielded her during the gunfight at an Art Gallery and while she would normally have nothing to do with a ganger, his actions convinced Mia to give him a chance. Their relationship has blossomed and the two are now married.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [Solo 4 (Spy 5 / Interface 3)]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and supposedly hid her in Federal Witness Protection while they built their case against Baronti. In fact, she was recruited by the C.I.A. and sent to South America to help the Agency in their secret war against the South American Alliance. Her activities are classified as Top Secret and all records are sealed. On her return to Night City, she finished her education at Night City University in Computer Science. At graduation she was arrested for a murder that she committed years ago and has just been released after serving 2 ½ years for manslaughter in a Federal Super Max due to her extensive knowledge of government secrets. On her release, she was declared legally insane and was forced to spend another 6 months in a mental hospital. Her former fiancé left her a substantial fortune which has grown considerable and the young woman is now very wealthy.
The NPCs
Carlo Garza: A local grip hired by the Zandvoort Fashion House for the various photo shoots in Venezuela.
Eva Diaz: A local make-up artist hired by the Zandvoort Fashion House for the various photo shoots in Venezuela.
Frieda Looten (Corporate): The Zandvoort Fashion House representative supervising the entire Fashion shoot.
Glen Davis (Solo): This man is Roy Batty’s personal bodyguard and head of his security. He ran against 8-Ball for a Town Constable position and lost. The man is a professional and holds no grudge. He has begun to admire the Team.
Manuel Rivas: A local grip hired by the Zandvoort Fashion House for the various photo shoots in Venezuela.
Maria Rojas: The local wardrobe assistant hired by the Zandvoort Fashion House for the various photo shoots in Venezuela.
Melanie Verken (Corporate): The wardrobe coordinator & Frieda’s right hand woman from the Zandvoort Fashion House.
Roy Batty (Corporate): This is one of the richest men in Wells, Nevada. He started out as an enemy of Whyte Hat in their efforts to clean up the Outback, but soon realized that Mitzi and her people were more valuable to him as allies.
The Action
Wednesday, July 8, 2076:
By 7:30 am, the Team boards a Roland Executive SST at the Harriet Airport in Wells, NV. Suzy first asks Celestin if she is carting any cash, no. Suzy then hands Celestin one of two small suitcases she is carrying and asks her to take it though customs. As they settle into their seats another limousine pulls up and out steps two surprise extra passengers, Roy Batty and Glen Davis (Roy Batty’s bodyguard & security chief)! Roy is just hitching a ride on Suzy’s rental jet to the Cayman Islands, where he has a home. During the flight, Roy sits with Suzy and it is clear he is interested in her. She doesn’t either discourage him or encourage him. The two talk quietly. What can be overheard is conversation about local real estate, which apparently Suzy owns a lot of. Glen Davis, who ran against 8-Ball for the Wells Constable, chats up 8-Ball and Cossack. Jamal just looks out the window during the flight and enjoys the view. Their flight time is 3 hours.
When they land at 11 am, there is a spinner and an electric limousine waiting for the jet. Everyone deplanes. Just before Roy heads to the spinner with Glen, he takes Suzy’s hand, kisses it and says, “When you have more time, you should come visit me on my home on Cayman Brac (the easternmost of the three islands) this winter.”
“That sounds like it could be fun. Winters can make one so ….. cold,” she replies with a smile.
Jamal mutters under his breath, “Oh, dear.”
The limo is waiting for Team. Cossack gets the keys and drives to The Westin Grand Cayman Seven Mile Beach Resort & Spa. Before Suzy checks into her ocean view 2-bedroom suite, she puts the two small suitcases in the hotel safe. The Team has adjacent rooms to Suzy’s suite. Once settled into their rooms, Suzy will want to go shopping and buy all new, expensive island clothes not only for her, but for Mia and Celestin. Of course, she has the store all picked out. Cossack drives the Jamal and the girls there, while 8-Ball does a security sweep of their set of rooms and a general security assessment of the hotel. The outfits the girls pick out are all Designer quality and of both Island Flash and High Fashion styles. Suzy asks if the men want to get some new island clothes. They both do and Jamal even has a list!
They drive to a recommended men’s store, but Cossack is concerned that there is no secure parking. The young women tell the two men that they will watch the car. Cossack is concerned that someone might give the three young women some problems. Mia smiles and says hopefully, “Maybe someone will try to mug us.”
Not much chance of that since all three of the women have Arasaka Te 7; never mind that Suzy is a highly trained Special Forces operative. Suzy hands Jamal her Gold Cred Chip and PIN, then he and Cossack go into the store and pick up several outfits of High Fashion, Island Flash ranging from Very Good quality to Designer. Afterwards, they all return to their hotel
When they return, Suzy looks at 8-Ball and realizes that he stands out in his current state of dress. She asks Cossack and Jamal to take him back to that men’s store to get him some proper clothes. She tells Jamal put it on her Gold Card. The three men head out and help 8-Ball pick up some new clothes. The three young women put on their new bathing suits and head down to the beach where Suzy has already rented a private cabana. When the three man return, 8-Ball puts his purchases in his room. The three get into their new bathing suits and head down to the beach.
There they find the young women have collected a small group of admirers and are all chatting amiably. The three male Team members come up and everyone introduces themselves. A couple of the young beach goers recognize 8-Ball and Cossack by reputation and try not to look too nervous. However, one is a bit intimidated and excuses himself. Jamal has a little laugh and heads off to swim. Of the three remaining young men, one is the son of a local official, another is an American tourist and the third is a French tourist. Both Mia and Suzy speak fluent French and chat this last one up. The young man’s attention is split, but he spies the body language of Mia with 8-Ball, so he focuses on Suzy. The actress gets up to take a swim. She does her very best catwalk towards the water and the young men’s conversation dies as they all watch her walk away. The Frenchman excuse himself to also take a swim.
Cossack asks Celestin (in Romanian) if they have any Horilka. Indeed, they do, she has an unlabeled bottle on the table already. Cossack pours shots for their guests, but only the American seems to enjoy it. The afternoon passes on with pleasant conversation, swimming and alcohol. At 5 pm, Suzy has made reservations for Celestin, Mia and herself at the spa for a massage and a little pampering. Dinner is 7:30pm at Ferdinand’s, but it is early to bed for Suzy as she has a busy day planned for tomorrow. 8-Ball and Mia also decide to make it an early night.
However, Cossack, Celestin and Jamal want to head out for drinks and dancing. Cossack asks the hotel concierge for a place nearby. On his recommendation, the three head to the nearby Club Havana. Celestin actually gets Cossack out on the dance floor, who is afraid he will embarrass himself, but really doesn’t at all. Jamal easily picks up a dance partner and doesn’t make a fool of himself despite his lack of skill. Fortunately, he has high Reflexes. The three have a wonderful time before heading back to their hotel.
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Thursday, July 9, 2076:
In the morning Suzy, dressed in business attire with a large brimmed hat and sunglasses, heads downstairs to the front desk with 8-Ball as Cossack fetches their car. She gets the two small suitcases out of the safe and hands one to 8-Ball. The three drive to the First Bank of the Cayman Islands where Suzy and 8-Ball enter. The young woman goes up to a specific bank officer and hands him a card. He man looks at it and lets her and 8-Ball past the ornate railing surrounding this area of the bank. Suzy gestures for 8-Ball to sit, while she enters a senior bank officials office. Fifteen minutes later, the bank gatekeeper motions for 8-Ball to go to the inner door. It opens and Suzy swaps suitcases with him. Her old one is now a lot lighter. Another fifteen minutes pass and Suzy comes out and signals to 8-Ball it is time to leave
[GM Note: Yes, Suzy is back to doing a little money laundering for herself and a friend. She deposited €100,000 in one of her secret accounts and another €100,000 in Mitzi’s Cayman account there. From there she can move it around and hide her actions from any prying eyes.]
While those three are doing a little banking, Jamal spends the morning visiting the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, the islands premier art museum.
They all return to the hotel and get ready for a test photo shoot on the West Bay beach which will be followed by a dive trip off the Kittiwake Shipwreck & Artificial Reef. This last event is especially important to Jamal as he is a Navy Seal and Nuscuba is also a hobby. They all head up to the West Bay Beach and the practice fashion photo shoot starts off well until a group of four young, rich entitled punks start walking through the shots deliberatively. 8-Ball asks them nicely to stop and yes, he is both polite and respectful. One of these rich punks gets right in his face and demands, “Do you know who I am?”
8-Ball says, “Sorry (no) and who would you be?”
The punks look at each other at laugh, then one turns to the solo and barks, “My father is ……”
8-Ball cuts him off and tells him, “No, who are you? I am not interested in who your father is. Now, why don’t you all turn around and don’t disturb the artists.”
The defiant little asshole demands, “Oh yeah, or what?”
“Or I will ask you in a less polite manner and you wouldn’t want me to do that. So really, please just go away.”
One of the young punk’s friends start egging his brave but foolish young friend on. At this point everyone notices a large, muscular, no neck bodyguard type approaching. The mouthy young man tells 8-Ball, “You’re in deep shit now, mother fucker.”
8-Ball and this bodyguard give each other a professional look over and this man with no neck who says, “Please pardon my young friend here.”
“That is quite all right,” 8-Ball responds.
The young punk is surprised by this and tells his man, “Hey, you’re supposed to …..”
This other bodyguard orders his young charge, “I think it is time for you to get back in the car.”
This is followed by a glare at his charge’s friends who immediately turn and walk away.
While walking away, the mouthy one says to his bodyguard, “I’ll tell my father about this and…..”
The young punk’s bodyguard cuts him off, “I’ve already told your father and he wants you home now!”
Mia and Suzy finish getting the photos they want and it is time to head to the local dive boat that they rented. Jamal, Suzy and 8-Ball dive the wreck of the former USS Kittiwake, a former submarine Rescue vessel, which was sunk off the West Bay years ago as an artificial reef and diving attraction. Mia swims a little, but isn’t a diver, so she stays on board. Celestine doesn’t even swim so Cossack also stays on the dive boat with her. Both women express their desire to learn Nuscuba. When the dive is finished everyone heads back to the hotel for another gourmet meal.
This evening Suzy does wish to go out clubbing and everyone gets dressed up in their island best! What she has done is rented the entire bus of the Cayman Pub Crawl. This pub crawl is a small bus that takes groups out to seven clubs for drinks and dancing at one fixed rate. At each location you get 2 free drinks. Each of these clubs has been notified that you are coming and are ready to show you the best time they can. Jamal, Cossack and all three of the women are fired up to party, drink and dance the night away. 8-Ball declares he is just going have his Shirley Temples and watch over the group. They start at the Jungle Bar and Lounge. All of the Team hits the dance floor except 8-Ball. Mia dances well. Celestin again gets Cossack who again does well along with Celestin. Suzy tears the place up, but she is a professional caliber dancer. Jamal, however, botches his dance roll badly and earns himself a point of damage. This doesn’t stop him from dancing at every club.
Everything goes along fine until they reach the fourth club of the night. 8-Ball spies the big mouth, rich punk from this afternoon with one of his friends. The kid’s bodyguard is also there, but standing in the back on the other side of the room. One of the kids heads towards 8-Ball while the other heads towards Suzy, who has found a local to dirty dance with. The Team solo tries to move towards Suzy, but the punk steps in his way. 8-Ball tries to walk around the young drunk, but the dance floor is crowded so he can’t get by. The punk sees this and says, “Hey, I’m talking to you.”
The kid tosses his drink right into 8-Ball’s eyes. The solo’s dodge fails (or rather the kid gets a critical success). The kid shouts, “I’m talking to you, mother fucker!”
8-Ball concentrates on trying to get to his charge, Suzy. It’s not that he feels she is seriously threatened, but mostly that she might seriously hurt the young punk if he bothers her. Unfortunately, 8-Ball can’t get there in time. However Cossack and Celestin are dancing next to Suzy and the Rocker sees the punk coming. The look in her eyes tips Cossack off, who turns around and intercepts the kid. The drunk punk pushes the driver saying, “Get out of my fucking way!”
Cossack stands his ground and tells the kid, “This isn’t a warning, this is a war.”
The young man won’t listen and tries to push past. Cossack grapples the kid’s torso from behind. The Ukrainian picks him up and carries him to the door. The kid thrashes around like a flailing child. A bouncer comes up tells Cossack to put the kid down. The punk starts accusing the Ukrainian of trying to rob him. Cossack calmly explains that the young man was bothering his boss and points out Suzy. The bouncer tells the punk to leave the young woman (Suzy) alone. The punk responds with, “You can’t tell me what to do!”
This young punk is immediately ejected from the club. 8-Ball sees two bouncers and the kid’s bodyguard heading in his direction. The look on the three approaching men is one of annoyance, at the young punk, who is up in 8-Ball’s face yipping like tiny, harmless dog. The boy’s bodyguard pulls the young man back firmly and tells him, “We are leaving now, young sir.”
The kid is furious and yells at the man, “No, I’m not! And you’re fired!”
The bodyguard replies calmly, “No, your father hired me and only he can fire me. We are leaving now!”
The rich, young punk now realizes that he is surrounded by four large gentlemen who mean business. The two bouncers escort the pair out. Before he leaves the kid’s bodyguard says to 8-Ball, “Again, my apologies, Mr. Miller.”
The next three club visits go well, and everyone has a good time.
***
Friday, July 10, 2076:
Suzy’s up early in the morning for swimming with Jamal and to catch a little sun. Everybody packs up to leave today. They learn that the steward on their jet is ill. This worries everyone until they learn, no, it wasn’t any disease that laid him low, just some bad clams.
In the afternoon, the Team flies into Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela on the coast. Frieda Looten, the Zandvoort Fashion House representative is there to meet them, but Suzy and Jamal are immediately detained by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional) or the SEBIN. 8-Ball tries to remain near Suzy, but is told his choices are to go to the hotel or spend some ‘quality time’ waiting in a Venezuelan jail for defying a police order. So, 8-Ball and everyone else is brought to their hotel, the Posada Playa Dominó, a 4.5 star waterfront establishment. There are only six rooms in this hotel, and the group has rented them all. 8-Ball and Mia will share a room, as will Cossack and Celestin, but everyone else has their own. The Team is told to stay close to the hotel grounds and travel no farther than 100 feet off the grounds until notified they have permission to do so.
Frieda Looten also has her own room with the last one reserved for her assistant, who is still on her way there. Cossack and 8-Ball check the car they have rented for any bugs and tracking devices. There is a policeman stationed in this small hotel. Actually, he is there for the Team’s protection. Outside are other SEBIN agents watching for any on the Team to try to leave the hotel.
That evening Jamal is released and brought to the hotel with Frieda Looten and Henry Gleeson, the local US consular official. Jamal tells the Team that a stream of intelligence officers came into to talk with him. They were polite, for the most part, but Jamal is a trained Navy Seal, so he doesn’t make a misstep. Henry Gleeson explains that Suzy’s criminal history and ‘alleged’ connection with the C.I.A. has made the intelligence services here a little nervous. There is nothing to do about this, so the Team samples the small hotel’s bill of fare and hang out in the hammocks overlooking he sea.
***
Saturday, July 11, 2076:
Henry Gleeson again visits the Team in the morning along with Frieda Looten, the Zandvoort Fashion House representative. They tell the Team that they are working on getting Suzy released. About 2 pm, Henry and Frieda return with a SEBIN agent and the Team is invited to come with them to pick up Suzy. They are brought to a local TV station, which is the local VTV affiliate. Jamal realizes this is the state run network. They are told to be quiet as the Team is brought into a studio where Suzy is being interviewed for a news magazine’ style show. She is telling the interviewer how happy she is to be in Venezuela and how the people and government have been so ‘friendly and welcoming’. Suzy’s Spanish is perfect as is her Venezuelan accent. The young woman’s minor in College was linguistics with a specialization in Romance languages. She praises this country’s history against colonial oppression, and dishes out some minor criticism of America’s policy towards Venezuela. She hopes that her presence here will help heal the rift between her country and Venezuela that has been so soured by the various South Am Wars. By the time she is finished even the SEBIN agent is smiling.
They are then all brought back to their hotel. The policeman inside (and SEBIN agents outside) remain, but the mood is much more relaxed. 8-Ball shows Suzy the napkin with a warning that they are probably being listened to before he destroys it. Suzy just continues talking about how happy she is to be here and hoping that this will help to improve relations between the United States and Venezuela. The afternoon is spent lounging on the stone deck on the rocky seashore, and splashing about in the hotel’s salt water pool.
As evening begins Melanie Verken, the wardrobe coordinator and Frieda’s right hand woman from the Zandvoort Fashion House, arrives to plan out tomorrow’s first fashion shoot which will take place at the historic Castillo San Carlos. Everyone is in on the meeting. 8-Ball, besides being ready for his security role, wishes to learn about this new style of event that needs protection. Cossack studies the local maps and possible escape routes. This old fort is about three miles east down the coast and guards La Guaria the old port for this area. It is located about 1000 feet up the mountain from the shore.
***
Sunday, July 12, 2076:
Cossack is given the keys to a small bus that can carry everyone to Castillo San Carlos. The Team meets their local hires for the photo shoots. They are Maria Rojas, the wardrobe assistant, Eva Diaz, the make-up artist and Carlo Garza & Manuel Rivas who will serve as grips. Castillo San Carlos is an old bastion or star fort. It has four ‘star points’ and no real interior except for a ramp that runs from the gate to the top. The stone foundations of the interior buildings are at the center. There are two policemen on duty, one at the gate and another on the top. There is also a small number of tourists there. Both 8-Ball and a policeman pick up that Manuel Riva has a concealed handgun. The policeman questions Manuel, but the man has a local permit to carry. The Venezuelan government has denied a request for temporary permits for the Team’s security which is annoying.
The grips set up a small tent for Suzy to change inside one of the low foundations and the fashion shoot begins. The tourists gawk a bit, but are mostly there to see the old fort. 8-Ball is a little suspicious of one male tourist who is wearing an unusually long linen coat. It is a local fashion and not very out of place. Still, he keeps a discreet eye on him. During this picture session on a south west corner of the old fort’s wall, Suzy is draped over the battlements and looking back up the mountain when she suddenly shouts, “Mia, get down!”
Both Suzy and Mia throw themselves behind the wall as a bullet wizzes by the would be fashion model and strikes the stone across from where she was sitting. Celestine, Maria and Eva also drop down immediately. 8-Ball turns to look at the suspicious man in the long linen coat and he is pulling an AKM style assault rife with a folding stock, while the woman with him pulls a handgun. The bodyguard starts to move towards these two, but stops as he notices they are turning to look up the mountain where the shot came from. 8-Ball correctly assumes the two are Venezuelan security operatives. The security agent with the assault rifle throws a few rounds in the direction of the tree covered mountain where he thinks the shot came from. Cossack gets low and checks behind them for any more threats, but see none. Manuel Rivas has pulled his piece and begins making sure everyone is getting to cover. The two uniformed policemen jump into action yelling for the other tourists to take cover. All but one does that. This is a woman at the far end of the fort, who starts rubber necking back to see what is going on. 8-Ball sees this, sprints towards her and tackles the woman into cover. This terrifies the female tourist, but possibly saves her life, as she was the only target now visible. The woman is eventually grateful.
There is only the one shot and the police call the attack in. Everyone remains in cover for ten minutes until police reinforcements arrive including a helicopter that begins scanning the hillside. 8-Ball calculates that the shot came from about 800 to 1100 meters away and passes that information along. The security agents on scene agree. It takes another half an hour for the police to secure the route off the mountain and the Team is rushed back to their hotel which now has increased security. 8-Ball asks the hotel staff to make sure that the police guards get coffee and food while on duty. Suzy is shocked that anyone down here would want to kill her, but calms down with a relaxing swim in the hotel’s small salt water pool.
***
Monday, July 13, 2076:
U.S. Consular and Venezuelan officials come by and announce that the local beach shoot for today is cancelled since they haven’t found yesterday’s shooter yet. They also want to talk with the Team’s security people. In light of yesterday’s incident, the Venezuelan government has changed their mind and 8-Ball, Cossack and Jamal will be issued short term weapons permits. In fact, each is issued a Sternmeyer 35 handgun with a waist clip holster and three full magazines; one with standard ammo, one with AP ammo and the last with rubber bullets. The trio will have to return the weapons when they leave the country.
In the afternoon the Team, Frieda, Melanie and their four local hires board a Dutch registered motor yacht. This vessel is 192 feet long with five decks including an upper sun deck with a small pool. It has a high ocean going bow with a crane on the foredeck to launch its small mini-sub, two jet skis, one large and one small auxiliary craft. It displaces 676 tons with a top speed of 14.5 knots and a cruising speed of 12 knots. Its accommodations are luxurious. The ship pulls out of the nearby Marina Deportiva and heads west to the coastal town of Porto Colombia. This vessel is shadowed at a very discreet distance by a small Venezuelan Navy patrol craft. On the yacht there is another official fashion photo shoot with Mia capturing some superb pictures and Suzy modeling the Zandvoort clothing. By evening they arrive at small town of Porto Colombia where the yacht anchors for the night.
***
Tuesday, July 14, 2076:
In the morning they have a new fashion photo shoot at Playa Grande, the beautiful local beach. There is really no trouble here. In fact, Suzy has locals (especially children), come up to her as her previous interview praising Venezuela is getting a lot of airplay. The young woman engages with all who come up to talk with her between shots and has her picture taken with any local who wishes it. There are a couple of armed police present, but they are clearly here for the group’s protection. The town has only one road coming in and the authorities have had a roadblock on it for a day now to make sure no one tries to enter for a second shot at Suzy.
In the afternoon the wind picks up a bit and some small waves start to build. Suzy rents a surf board and joins the locals in some surfing. She has some skill and does impress those watching. Mia steps in the water to get some shots of this. 8-Ball does notice that the aspiring actress and model deliberately makes at least one spectacular fall to the delight of the crowd. Cossack decides to give surfing a try. He doesn’t have any skill in this, but does have high reflexes and good athletics. The Ukrainian actually does well and also impresses the locals.
Later in the afternoon, the group is given a tour of the town by the wife of the mayor. Suzy speaks to everyone who approaches, acting like a good will ambassador. The local media laps this up. She is disarmingly charming to all. That evening the mayor himself with some other local officials take the Team out to dinner at the Restaurant Madera Fina. This triggers Social rolls for the entire Team; not a strong skill for many. However, everyone does acquit themselves well, except for Cossack, who has no skill and not the highest Empathy. His social faux pax is overlooked since he is a complete foreigner and Celestin’s good social skills help cover the man’s shortcomings.
After the dinner the Team takes their launch back to the yacht and heads off to bed.
***
Wednesday, July 15, 2076:
Just after midnight, the yacht sails west for Puerto Cabello, but before they depart, 8-Ball takes the Nuscuba gear on board and checks the hull for any unwanted items attached to the hull. There is nothing. Just before dawn, the vessel docks at the pier near Playa Waikiki in Puerto Cabello. In the morning, Cossack drives the Team and entire entourage down Highway 1 into the interior to the waterfalls outside of the small town of Alpargatón for the last photo shoot of the trip in Venezuela. They park at a small farm stead on the outside of town. This place has a barb wire defensive perimeter since there has been some very occasional bandit activity. Because of this three Venezuelan police officers accompany them. One stays and guards the vehicles and two escort the group to the falls.
The falls are beautiful and again both Suzy and Mia get some wonderful pictures to the delight of Frieda Looten and her assistant Melanie. There are a couple of curious local young people watching with their mothers and Suzy interacts with them and has a few pictures taken with them when requested. This final shoot in Venezuela goes off very well and the Team heads back to their vehicles.
The Team is heading across the farmstead between what appears to be a bunk house and a barn, While one of their two police escorts is securing the gate behind them, 8-Ball notices that the police officer they left by their vehicles is standing oddly. Then the sound of a Kalashnikov rifle erupts behind the bunk house to the Team’s left and the officer securing the gate behind them is cut down. Suzy immediately bolts away from the gunfire towards the barn-like structure. She doesn’t head for the door, but throws herself through the closest window hoping that if anyone is waiting in ambush, they are ready to shoot someone coming through the door. Manuel Rivas drops the gear he is carrying, pulls his weapon and heads to the northeast corner of the barn to cover any attack from the south. 8-Ball pulls his Sternmeyer 35 and heads to the southwest corner of the bunk house to cover anyone coming from the back of that building, which is where the sound of the Kalashnikov came from. The remaining Venezuelan policewoman runs a takes cover behind a car and pulls up her assault rifle. At the same moment Jamal tries to run through the door of the bunkhouse. He is shot by an attacker hiding at the corner of the south east farm building, but the bullet does only a bit of damage (2 lethal) against his skinweave. The Navy Seal continues to the door only to discover it is securely barred, so he bounces off. With the last of his move Jamal tries to come around the southeast corner of the bunk house. Unfortunately, an attacker is there with a double barrel shotgun. Jamal does manage to slap the barrel away so the first shot goes wide, but this ambusher swings second barrel back and hits the Navy Seal in the leg at point blank range. This puts the doctor into critical.
Cossack moves forward, draws his weapon and covers to the Team’s north and east. Another bandit armed with a Kalashnikov comes around the southwest corner of the barn, right into Manuel Rivas’ weapon sight. The grip fires twice and inflicting a mortal wound on his target, who fails his stun save, but uses his Luck not to die. At the northeast corner of the bunk house, the attacker who killed the cop at the gate shows himself and 8-Ball lands both shots from his Sternmeyer 35. The solo’s first shot hits the man in the head killing him instantly. Another attacker steps out of the main farmhouse and the policewoman shoots at him. Unfortunately, her weapon jams. This new attacker is also fired on Cossack who hits with his first shot, but misses with his second. The Ukrainian’s leg hit puts his target in serious condition. This new attacker was going to shoot Jamal, but now decides to return fire on Cossack with his carbine. It is a leg hit, but the Ukrainian’s skinweave and BTM turns all but one point of damage.
The last attacker jumps up from behind the car where the dead cop is tied to and lets loose with a single blast from her double barrel at the remaining policewomen. The shot actually hits the car in front of the cop and the vehicle takes the damage. This attacker saves her second shot. By now Suzy gets the barn door open, since there is no one inside. Mia, Celestin, Eva, Frieda and Melanie run in the barn. With the door now clogged up, Maria leaps through the window that Suzy jumped through. Carlo Garza heads for the attacker that 8-Ball dropped and scoops up his Kalashnikov.
The next round has Suzy going first and she heads out the back of the barn. She sees the downed attacker and picks up his assault rifle. The attacker at the corner of the southeast farm building fires at 8-Ball and scores a head shot. The solo does have an armored hat and that along with his skinweave and BTM reduces the final damage to 3 Lethal. Cossack closes on the bandit that came out of the main farmhouse and shoots him twice. The damage will prove fatal at the end of the round, but the attacker does get a last wild shot which misses. The Venezuelan policewoman drops out of sight and clears her jammed weapon. 8-Ball closes a bit on the female attacker and shoots her twice, but she still remains in action. Mia grabs a machete off the wall and heads to the back door to back up Suzy. Celestin also picks up a machete and prepares to defend the other women inside the barn. The bandit facing Jamal backs up and reloads. Jamal steps forward and hits his opponent with two point blank shots from his Sternmeyer 35 killing him. Manuel Rivas moves to the northeast corner of the barn and waits for the shotgun wielding attacker to pop up from behind the car where she is hiding.
The final round sees Suzy again going first. She moves along the south edge of the farm buildings and cuts off any retreat by the two remaining bandits. 8-Ball moves to behind the fountain in front of the main house and shoots at the rifleman hiding at the corner of the southeast farm building. This causes two wounds, but the man is still on his feet. Cossack realizes that the female attacker behind the car is probably reloading her shotgun so he rushes her and delivers a martial arts punch. The blow shatters her leg. This and her other damage prove fatal. Carlo Garza comes around the corner at the northeast point of the bunkhouse, but the battle there is over. The last bandit who was firing a rifle at the corner of the southeast farm building flees to the south and right into Suzy’s sights. The actress / model puts fifteen rounds from her Kalashnikov into him and kills the man. Mia moves to tie up the unconscious attacker (and only survivor) by the barn.
The fight is over and 8-Ball begins to patch up Jamal and the few other wounded. The remaining policewoman calls in and reports the attack. More police are on the way. Cossack asks the remaining officer, who was clearly a friend of the two dead policemen to give each family one of his two €5,000 token chips. She says she will do this. He also asks if she wants to them to hand over their newly acquired weapons. No, at this point she is quite comfortable with the Yankees (plus two Ukrainians) who fought by her side being heavily armed. Police reinforcements arrive quickly and take away the one remaining bandit for questioning. The Team and their local companions are returned to their yacht, which now has a large police and SEBIN contingent guarding it.
***
Thursday, July 16, 2076:
The local officials can’t (and won’t) keep this incident out of the news. The media is lauding Cossack’s €5,000 gifts to each family of the slain officers. The surviving policewoman is now slated to be decorated for her actions. The Team learns that these bandits were remnants of the now defunct Colombia North Coast Cartel. This set has devolved into a kidnap gang and they were here for Suzy and any of the Team that they could get their hands on.
Suzy does an interview with local news services, where she praises the Venezuelan police and government and is filmed, along with Cossack, visiting the families of the slain policemen. Late that afternoon everyone turns in their issued weapons. The four local hires take the Team out for a final meal and give them their contact information. Frieda is very pleased with the outcome so far, but Melanie is just happy to still be alive. These Zandvoort Fashion House people will travel with the Team to Aruba where a final fashion shoot is scheduled. The motor yacht sails up the coast and anchors off Cayo Playa Azul in the Morrocoy National Park where Suzy wants to go diving.
***
Friday, July 17, 2076:
In the morning, both Frieda Looten and Melanie Verken have a bit of food poisoning so they stay in their cabin. Suzy, Jamal and 8-Ball head off in the mini-submarine with the yacht’s sub pilot to ‘go diving’ in a deep pool beyond some shallow water where the yacht can’t go. Suzy has her underwater camera to take some shots.
While they are underwater another diver swims into sight. Suzy and this strange diver exchange some hand signals. She then signals this man to head for the mini-sub and for 8-Ball and Jamal to swim off in another direction with her. This strange diver enters the mini-sub. About ten minutes later the diver leaves the submersible and swims away. Suzy finishes taking her pictures and they all reenter the undersea craft to return to the yacht. They all get back on board and the mini-sub is returned to its cradle on the foredeck. Both 8-Ball and Jamal realize that as far as anyone is concerned there was NO other diver they met in the water. Later that afternoon the motor yacht departs for Oranjestad, Aruba.
By evening both Frieda and Melanie are feeling better and everyone relaxes on the deck. Venezuelan TV is lauding the Team’s visit and Cossack especially is identified as a man of great compassion. It is a pleasant and lovely evening.
***
Saturday, July 18, 2076:
In the morning, they land at the Varadero Aruba Marina & Boatyard in Aruba where a limo is waiting (Cossack will drive) and they go to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba. Suzy gives two interviews to local and European medias where she gushes about the hospitality of the Venezuelan government and people. The medias also interview both 8-Ball and Cossack. Cossack notices two people who are taking an interest in the Party, and 8-Ball also sees them and picks out one other that the Ukrainian missed. The Team solo notifies hotel security, but they don’t seem concerned. He also makes sure everyone on the Team knows.
[GM Note: These men represent the following groups: Interpol, General Intelligence and Security Service (Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst) or the AIVD – the Dutch Intelligence Service, and the Aruba Police Force (Korps Politie Aruba). These groups have all watched the news too!]
That evening Suzy wants to head to the casino to do some gambling. 8-Ball goes with her. The solo only spends an hour and loses about €250. Suzy spends a good four hours at the tables. She attracts a rich, older man who is clearly interested in her and loses a little money to him. By his accent he appears to be East European. This oligarch gets her to wager a larger sum against him, but she turns the tables and takes him for €2,500. With that she excuses herself as it is time for her to get some sleep. Suzy has cleared a net of €2,000 for her evening before she tips out her dealers. The oligarch isn’t very happy, but both he and she know that this is just ‘chump change’ for both of them.
***
Sunday, July 19, 2076:
In the morning is the last photo shoot on Baby beach. Suzy stumbles and twists her ankle and while Mia does take some fine pictures, it isn’t a good shoot. It matters little as the Zandvoort Fashion House has more than enough photos to launch their new Island Line. Frieda Looten and Melanie Verken say their good-byes and express their sincere thanks to the Team for a job well done. That evening the Team flies out of Aruba from the Queen Beatrix International Airport. Interpol, the Dutch Intelligence service and local authorities are there to make sure they get safely on their private jet flight back to the United States. The steward has recovered from his food poisoning so the flight is fully staffed.
Suzy and Mia go over all the pictures from the trip. Mia is especially impressed by Suzy’s underwater photography and makes up her mind to learn Nuscuba to be able to go diving and work on underwater photography.
A couple of hours into the flight Suzy sits by herself as many on the Team are catching some sleep. Tomorrow, the three remaining members of the Cyber Revolutionaries will fly into Wells and come to Rancho Mitzi. They will be joining her and Celestin to work up their sets for the mini-tour next month to see if this new line up for that band is viable. The steward brings Suzy some champagne and pours her a glass before disappearing. A smile breaks across the young woman’s face. The Agency will be very pleased with her. The target of her operation, ex-Captain Roberts of the Nevada State Border Patrol has disappeared off the face of the planet, never to be seen again.
Next: Episode 61 – A Short Tour with the Cyber Revolutionaries
[GM Note: So, what did this all have to do with eliminating the murderous ex-Captain Roberts formally of the Nevada State Border Patrol? That’s a fair question. For Suzy this job was a matter of survival. In the past, she had pushed her own agenda using C.I.A. assets but had finally been caught doing it. The Agency needed to teach her a lesson and her recent imprisonment was just a part of that ‘lesson’. In the end, you are only useful if you are still effective. This mission was a test to see if she was still the talented assassin who could be of use. The girl understood that failure here was her death sentence. Her fear was that this ‘cleaning’ might extend to the rest of her Team, who she truly considers as her family. Elements of SEBIN, the Venezuelan intelligence service, suspected that the United States would try to kidnap or kill Roberts, which made her job even harder. So, if the Venezuelans were looking for an extraction / cleaner Team, she would give them one, sort of.
Since the Agency was already assisting her new ‘career’ as an actress / model, they arranged for the Fashion Shoot with the Zandvoort House. Suzy, with her checkered past, as the model; Mia, the daughter of a former US Special Forces operator as the photographer; 8-Ball, a Solo responsible for the elimination of a number of desert raider gangs as security; Jamal, a Navy Seal, as a bodyguard / doctor; Cossack, a known Runner formally wanted by Interpol, as chauffer along with his rabble-rousing, ex-con girlfriend, Celestin constituted a group that just screamed independent covert hit squad to any intelligence operative. Well, that was the whole point. It ‘looked like a duck, quacked like a duck’, but was in reality just a ‘harmless little bunny’. This fashion shoot was completely legitimate, and no one except Suzy knew anything about the true nature of the mission.
What the group did was draw away security and intelligence agents. The real assassin was smuggled into the country and hooked up with local Agency assets. The attempt on Suzy’s life at the Castillo San Carlos was a set up planned by her with an Agency asset as the shooter. This ‘attempt on her life’ which followed her TV interview where she mildly bad mouthed US policy on Venezuela made the Venezuelan government realize that her death in their country would be a political black eye. This led SEBIN to assign more agents to the Team. It also pressured the local government into issuing the Team weapons permits, which turned out to be fortuitous as the final kidnap attempt wasn’t in the Agency’s plans.
The route of the Fashion shoot moved towards the town where Roberts had been moved, a neighborhood in Valencia 20 miles south of Porto Cabello. By now Suzy’s “charm offensive” as the group moved down the coast had won over a good bit of the public. Even some in the government and the SEBIN began to think that there was nothing going on here. Of course, hardliners were just more convinced so they moved their agents closer in to the Team to make sure no one slipped away. This allowed the real C.I.A. assassin to get close and ‘disappear’ the now late ex-Captain Roberts. The ‘unexpected kidnappers’ at Alpargatón believed the Team was unarmed so their ham-handed kidnap attempt was stopped by the Team’s security working with the Venezuelan police. Cossack’s gifting of €5,000 to the families of the dead officers cemented the Team’s reputation as local heroes. which is actually quite deserved. The parts of SEBIN that were still convinced the Team was up to no good could never get permission to even question them again. Indeed, there was nothing that they could learn from anyone but Suzy, and she had undergone years of Agency training to resist interrogation. In her past she had been subjected to the most unspeakable torture and interrogation by the Cartels and had never broken. The success of this mission saved Suzy and possibly the whole Team.]
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All righty! I have been feverishly working on trying to learn how to use Roll20 with Cyberpunk 2020. I have it down enough to get us through Episode 60 this Saturday, but there will be no macros as of yet. Fortunately, it will be mostly role playing and only a little roll playing. After all, you are going to Venezuela, a recently hostile country, to do a fashion shoot featuring an acknowledged ex-C.I.A. associate and accused murderer, so what could go wrong?
And on that encouraging note, here is what happens over the Fourth of July weekend in South Beach and Wells, Nevada.
- Thursday, July 2, 2076: Jamal Hemmings is notified by the Department of the Navy that he has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve. He now has 19 years in. This is his last promotion so he can retire next year with a pension at his new rank.
- 4th of July Weekend: Thee are extensive celebrations in Wells, Nevada and in South Beach, Night City. Members of the Team are very busy assisting in both locations. The Chrome Berets organize the festivities in South Beach which draws members from the Seattle and San Diego Chapter. Suzy doesn't participate in Wells. She uses one of the Scholar systems to learn a new skill, otherwise she spends most of her time working out with Jake Kitagawa, hers and Mitzi's old friend, and catching up with Celestin and Mia.
- Monday, July 6 & Tuesday, July 7, 2076: The Team assembles their kits for the trip to South America. They also acquire new phones and sanitize their computers of any information that might be suspect.
We will now dive into our new arc in earnest!
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When I started playing Cyberpunk back in another century (I love the sound of that!) our motto was "Have your back-up ready", because this can be a fatal game for characters. Although the dice gods can be fickle and deliver your carefully crafted character an undeserved and unexpected death, that is often the nature of reality. Generally, however, it is careless and/or stupid play that gets you killed. The various GMs of these early games starting creating intricate and layered stories for us to explore. If your character got killed, your new 'toon' wouldn't have the knowledge that your previous one had. Our first GM would punish your new 'toon' mercilessly, if you used that knowledge. This is tactic I have thoroughly embraced. I am happy to say that my current players, who all have two active characters, are very adept at keeping each character's knowledge separate. In those early games we quickly learned that the true way to 'win' a scenario was to "live to fight another day". The trick was to live on the edge, but not fall off of it. That isn't always possible, true, but gaming groups die unless the GM can make his/her players feel invested in the campaign. That is hard to do when you are rolling up character after character who die at the whim of a GM who wants to show how clever he or she is.
I feel that many younger gamers are spoiled by video games with their resets and quickly created characters with little thought of "soul" so to speak. My current players have spent a lot of thought in creating backstory, which I do assist in some small way, but generally let them define who they want to play. They have all learned that I, as GM, will probably mine their backstory for 'game plot' in ways that they did not anticipate, or maybe they have. I try to make my sessions more than just mindless (or mindful) shoot 'em ups, although I do those types of scenarios too. Those can be very cathartic. However, little things that happen in my early scenarios may be clues to larger upcoming events for later sessions. Most often at least one of my players remembers that early seemingly minor early incident and gives the Team direction in solving the problem /mystery at hand. This adds to player character growth which wouldn't be possible if you slapped an artificial time limit on a campaign.
Over the years I have learned that campaigns can go stale. My experience has taught me that this occurs between 10 and 25 sessions. So, what I do divide any planned long term campaign into arcs that focus on only one part of the journey. Currently, that is the growth of a Team from street people to (hopefully) world class operators, if they live that long. This arc method allows for each player to create, to use the old Dark Sun term, character trees. At present, most of my players have two payable characters. My oldest player has three, but that oldest character is 'semi-retired' from active play and is the Team fixer. This "Arc System" of campaign building, allows character development for those who survive and keeps player interest in the Cyberpunk World I have developed. It also allows for introduction of new characters and perhaps players instead of just throwing them into the 'deep end' of an on going scenario,because, lets face it, cyberpunks are a suspicious lot and trust is an hard earned commodity. Well, that's the (hoped for) plan anyway.
With all of this said, a GM's campaign is what you want it to be. Whether it be short and brutal, or long and layered (but still dangerous), neither way is wrong. The point is to have fun and be entertained!
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8-Ball: I sent you a PM on your list already, so third is about your edit. Having a second formal set is a good idea. I am sorry, but there isn't enough time to order something from Bob Waite's and get it back in time. Yes, 8-Ball's Wardrobe & Style and his familiarity with South American culture will make sure he dresses well. Of course the Grand Cayman Islands has stores catering to the rich 'jet setters' where he could buy anything he feels he needs.
Cossack: Your (dated) grey cotton suit will be just fine. As to your fedora with its long feather, it is signature and part of your style. As your Personal Reputation is now a 7, this is getting known world-wide. Your gear is just fine. Yes, you can get the three WORM cards from the Euro Bank One office in the City of Elko. They do cost €50 apiece, but are much safer to bring than your standard bank card.
Jamal: I am still waiting on your travel list.
This trip will see you dealing with both the rich and powerful along with the common people and working folk from three somewhat different cultures (Cayman Islands, Venezuela & Aruba). Your previous experiences will help you navigate this, but it isn't a 'sure thing'. Be polite and respectful (not always easy for Cyberpunks) and you should be fine. Suzy will tell you that one of the (minor) ulterior motives of this trip to Venezuela is to help improve the image of Americans in the Southern Hemisphere. There is lingering hostility towards US Citizens in Venezuela. Of course, Cossack and Celestin won't suffer to much from that stigma being from the Ukraine.
More coming later this weekend. I will be sending out Roll20 invitations so I know Mikael and Snowyn have a free account. I don't know about TigerGuard.
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I do need some information from all the players on exactly what they are bringing to the islands and Venezuela. As I have stated, weapons are not allowed, at least by you. My main concern is clothes, electronics and unusual cyberware. You will be in the islands and Venezuela for about 12 days. The weather is generally hot and sunny. There will be some sea breezes, but it is still very warm. Since you are all now living in Nevada generally, you are used to the heat, but it is a dry heat. Where you are going can be very humid. I will need a list of the clothes you intend to bring and particularly if and how much SP they might have. This is especially true in regard to armored clothes. Anything generic and perhaps average will have logos and the heavier the SP, the more it will appear to be armored. Also, too many layers or heavy armor might bring about heat stroke or at least have you sweating like a pig. The list doesn't have to be ultra detailed, although that would make my life easier. Also, if you are buying things for the trip, I will point out that you have only two days to prepare, hence there will be no Whyte Hat flights to Night City during that time, so you will have to buy locally where you are. There will be clothing stores where you are going, but armored clothes will be difficult to find and your itinerary is tight.
Now on to electronics. There are banned items that can't be brought into some of your destinations, especially Venezuela, and the US doesn't allow certain technology to exit the country. While some of the Team has some rather exotic cyberware, most all of it can't be separated from your body easily and your host countries aren't going to dissect you for it. Any electronics made by Militech aren't welcome in Venezuela, nor is any surveillance equipment. Short range jammers and bug detectors are allowed as they are defensive and protective in nature. Two way radios and earwigs are also acceptable for the group to keep in contact with each other. Phones are in that same category, but you might consider purging any phone numbers of people or places that the Venezuelans might find suspicious. (i.e. people from the Forlorn Hope, who might not have a lot of fans down there.) You can always restore the numbers when you return. For example, Suzy is going to bring one of her cyberdecks, but it will be purged of any high tech or custom programs from B&B Technologies. Her deck will contain only legal programs and nothing that could be used to do anything illegal. She wants the deck mainly to look through public databases and sites of a tourist and historical nature. It will also be useful to look for any NET surveillance activity.
As GM, I am not looking to "got'cha" any players, but I won't hesitate to play the legal authorities where you are going as defending their country's interests. Sending your lists early will allow me to review them and give you a heads up on anything that might be an issue. If I get your list after the day before our game, then that is what you are bring through customs. After getting Mikael's very legitimate question on the legality of bringing a bow, I just want to give everyone a chance to bring what you think you might need without being surprised at any of the border crossings.
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When you ask Suzy about this, she will just look at you blankly for a second before saying, "I have no idea. What I do know is that America and Venezuela have been at war off and on for years and Americans with weapons aren't very popular down there. The two governments have diplomatic relations thanks to the efforts of Great Britain (this is part of this Cyberpunk's campaign history) and these two governments have been moving to normalize relations. Our (Venezuelan government approved) itinerary has no stops that would give you any opportunity to use your Bearcat composite bow and if you brought anymore than target arrows that might indicate to the authorities down there that your interest in having such a weapon isn't innocent. US Forces did use bows, unofficially, as silent kill weapons during the war. If you aren't detained over this they will certainly insist you carry this weapon in a secure and locked case. Are you going to walk around with this rather large case while you do your 'bodyguard thing'? That would give the appearance of being VERY unfriendly. Besides, if you found a situation where you had to use it, how long will it take you to unlock the case, get out the bow, knock an arrow and be ready to shoot? I think you might be dead before you are even ready to fire, but maybe not. You should also consider that some of the police officials we may run into might be Venezuelan veterans who fought against America and still bear a grudge. Giving them an excuse to arrest you on a weapons charge isn't a very good idea. Yes, you will probably never be convicted on such a charge, but you will be spending some 'not-so-quality' time in a Venezuelan jail."
What she is trying to say is, this isn't a good idea. Bringing such a weapon might be interpreted as trying to "lawyer" your way around the intent of the law. This tends to anger local law enforcement and judicial authorities. Being proved right in a court of law might take some time and you don't want that time to be in the custody of the Venezuelan penal system. Bail is almost never granted to foreigners who possess the means to flee the country.
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Hey, I'm on a roll! Here is the next of the back episodes on my quest to catch up with our game.
Episode 34 – The Veteran’s Day Celebration and a Job
The Veteran’s Day celebration goes off very well at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Park in South Beach. Representatives from the two other west coast chapters of the Chrome Berets show up. And the three chapters begin to build stronger bonds. The Team continues their investigations into the apparent change in ownership of the Burkett Mall. With a little nudge from Fawkes, Kronos calls Mitzi with a new and important bodyguard job. It is a tough assignment, but the Team completes it successfully. Their friends in the band the Cyber Revolutionaries get an important gig with Celestin now helping as their choreographer.
Background
A disparate group of Edgerunners from America and the Ukraine were brought together by a mysterious patron named ‘Marty’, who openly admitted she intended to misbehave. Well misbehave she did, this Team found itself about to be arrested on numerous capital charges. Marty, was revealed to be Martina Vargas / Lupescu, the illegitimate daughter of the late infamous Venezuelan Drug Lord, Jorge Vargas. With few prospects of surviving the wrath of LEDiv, they accepted Marty’s offer to follow her to the port city of Buenaventura in Colombia. As the only major port on that country’s Pacific coast, this city is hotly contested by all the cartels in the region. Martina ‘Marty’ Vargas, who had worked for all of these cartels at one time or another, was now considered a rising star among them. She was made ‘Arbiter’ of disputes in the city. To the Team’s surprise, in the end they learned that Marty was actually working with elements of the Colombian government who were being covertly supported by the C.I.A. and other international agencies to crush the cartels and restore the power of the central government in Bogotá.
This was accomplished (for the most part) and the Team returned to the United States with their true identities restored and their records cleared. Back in Night City they decide to remain together and continue their work as Edgerunners. With all the corruption and evil, they have seen, the Team also decides that, besides making a living, it is time to take a stand. To those who threaten the innocent with evil, their new mantra will be “Thou Shall Not Get Away With It!”
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Solo 7]: 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. Also, he acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 6]: 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 work in Colombia has led to the government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu, this coming October.
Hollow (Arthir Dawnson) [Solo 7]: This formally angry and resentful young man comes from a crime family in the Pacific Northwest and did a little time himself back in 2066. He broke with his family because he was unhappy with the direction they were going, followed by the death of his friend and mentor, a Judo instructor. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped him discover the identity of his mentor’s murderer and arranged for him to kill that man personally. This has calmed many of the demons that have been plaguing this young man.
Jake Kitagawa [Solo 7]: A 21 year old “Hafu” (half Japanese, half Anglo) solo who was born in Night City but moved back to Japan at one year of age. He only spent a few years there and, after the death of his Japanese father, moved back to the United States with his mother. He is an old friend of Mitzi and belonged to that same team that was scattered by Marco Baronti. Jake now does a good business as a freelance bodyguard.
Jamal Hemings [Medtech 7]: Jamal is now one of the Team Medics. He was born in a black working class neighborhood in Detroit in 2042. When Jamal was 15, his younger brother was killed by a cop for “playing with a toy gun while black.” This had a profound—though not immediately obvious—impact on Jamal. When he graduated from high school two years later at age 17, he joined the Navy. He entered the Navy SEALS where most of his work remains classified. It was Suzy that brought him into the company and the two are close. While his family is Moslem and his father was devout. His mother is more relaxed about prayer observances. So, Jamal did not learn Arabic initially, but has used his military educational opportunities to correct that. He is fluent now. As he grew older, he became more respectful of his religion. He is currently attending medical school in Night City.
Mitzi Blaize [Fixer 4 (Covert Operative 2 / Prowler 4)]: She is a local girl from a Night City combat zone who joined an up and coming Edgerunner Team with a powerful patron a couple of years back. They pulled off a few big jobs before some on her Team (not her) crossed a local Mafia Capo, Marco Baronti, who murdered their patron, many of her friends and scattered the others to the wind. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped her exact bloody revenge not only on Marco Baronti, but on the people who framed her father for a crime he didn’t commit, which drove this man to become a ‘family destroyer’.
Rue Perlo [Medtech 8]: She is a former Washington State National Guard medic from Seattle. Her sister was a hanger on at her hometown chapter of the Chrome Berets and served as their medic. This is where Rue became a friend of 8 Ball’s. When this solo put out the call for help for the Night City chapter, she answered this call and was hired by Marty full time. Her dream has to get her medical degree and become a certified doctor. Getting this was Martina’s promise to Rue. On her return to Night City, she will be enrolled in Medical School and in three terms will receive the training and certification as a legal Doctor of Medicine.
The NPCs
Bambi (Jennifer James) [Credibility 5]: A beautiful young woman met the Team posing as a fellow passenger on the New York Express zeppelin to befriend the Team on their trip to NYC when they were working for Marty. She turned out to be working for the World News Service (WNS). She did earn the Team’s trust when she brough diplomatic pressure to bear to have them released after they were detained in Washington, DC.
Camron ‘Cam’ Newfield [Credibility 6]: This man is an aggressive, up and coming reporter for DMS News Service. He smells a bigger story here with the Team, but remains on good terms with them.
Detective Richard Tanque [Cop]: An old friend (and contact) of Mitzi’s who works out of Precinct 2 in the gang unit.
Dickie [low level Fixer]: He is Red’s right hand man in Las Vegas and well known to the Team.
Greg Alberts [Corporate]: He is the rental manager for South Beach Redevelopment in South Beach neighborhood of San Morro.
Jake Kitagawa [Solo 7]: A 21 year old “Hafu” (half Japanese, half Anglo) solo who was born in Night City but moved back to Japan at one year of age. He only spent a few years there and, after the death of his Japanese father, moved back to the United States with his mother. He is an old friend of Mitzi and belonged to that same team that was scattered by Marco Baronti. Jake now does a good business as a freelance bodyguard.
Jack Masters [Fixer]: He is the President of Universal Records, a giant in the national music industry. * check for previous listings
Kronos (Robert Cronenberg😞 A retired(?) C.I.A. officer from the Second South Am War and regular at the Forlorn Hope. He is a mentor to Fawkes.
(the late) Marco Baronti [Fixer 10]: This man was the head of the Mob in Night City. He rose to power by ruthlessly eliminating all rivals including his own uncle and cousin. The Mid-City Hotel and Casino in the 88th Street Neighborhood is the crown jewel of his empire. He built that edifice on the bones of many locals some of whom were friends of Mitzi’s. Marco’s alliance with the Devil’s Cartel was troubling to many in the city and Federal government.
Mbole Ebunike [Politician]: This is the current mayor of Night City. Although he stated as a corporate stooge, he has begun to show troubling signs of independence.
Mia Byrnes [Art Student]: The girl is now a senior at Night City University’s Fine Arts School. She found 8-Ball attractive and interesting initially because he had a Mohawk haircut in the style her soldier father wore. The girl idolized her dad and was crushed when he was killed in the South Am Wars by Cartel Forces. 8-Ball shielded her during the gunfight at the Art Gallery and while she would normally have nothing to do with a ganger, his actions convinced Mia to give him a chance.
Mouse (Michael Floyd) [Gang Rank 3, Jury Rig 5]: This young man is the shy, introverted kid from the neighborhood who drifted into the Chrome Berets due to his technical skills. His brother Karl, who was killed during the Security Associates assault, was a member and convinced the gang to accept him due to his technical talents. This young man has flowered in the gang.
Red [Streetdeal 9]: A member of Mitzi’s original Team and their gun running fixer. He fled to Las Vegas, Nevada when Marco Baronti killed that team’s patron and starting putting contracts out on others. He has become a major arms dealer both legal and illegal.
Ricky Hidalgo [Streetdeal 4]: He is a friend of Mitzi’s from her old neighborhood, who now works as Red’s (a notorious gunrunner and former member of her old Team) representative in Night City.
Samantha Burke [Netrunner]: This beautiful young woman is old friend of Mitzi and some on her old time currently enrolled in the Masters of Computer Science Program at Night City University.
Shakira Hemings [Corporate]: This young Afro American woman is the Director of Operations and Rental Manager for Reynolds Realty of South Beach, a neighborhood in San Morro.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [NET Tech]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and hid her in Federal Witness Protection while they built their case against Baronti.
Zora Pleshakova: A former Ukrainian High Rider from the Crimea, who served with the Russian space forces before turning on them and becoming a ‘terrorist’. She fled to the United States and drifted to Night City where she has become a freelance pilot.
The Action
Friday, November 11, 2072
Fawkes and 8-Ball make their earlier morning run as over a hundred troops from the North Oak military base arrive with demonstration equipment for the Veteran’s Day Festivities at the San Morro Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park. The Chrome Berets have been instrumental in restoring this park with considerable effort on their part. The mayor, commander of the North Oak Military Hospital, a South Beach Redevelopment rep, Greg Alberts, is there along with Shakira Hemings, the Reynolds Realty representative, and a senior professor of history at NCU to give speeches. Since the mayor, Mbole Ebunike, and other city officials are in attendance even members of the Night City Police Department are on scene, so no trouble is expected. There are quite a few members of 8-Ball’s old Seattle Chapter and a few from the San Diego Chapter of the Chrome Berets. The reconstruction of this park is a point of pride of not only the local chapter, but to the national organization as a whole. There will be a party at the local Chrome Berets headquarters for the club, its visiting chapters and their local supporters this evening.
These festivities begin about noon so around 8 am, Cossack and Celestine head to the Team headquarters to use the computer there to look up who owns the Burkett Mall and the building where the Blood Reign had their headquarters. The mall’s ownership hasn’t been updated in a while but it is held by a Nevada holding company. The Blood Reign’s main building has the same problem, but the holding company is different from the one that owns the mall. Since she is not a NET Runner and is using a keyboard, this takes a few hours. The two have to get ready to head to the festivities which begin at noon.
At the appointed hour, Mayor Mbole Ebunike gives his speech, followed by Greg Alberts from South Beach Redevelopment rep, and Shakira Hemings of the Reynolds Realty. The commander of the North Oak military hospital speaks on the sacrifices of the American military personnel who served in that conflict. This is followed by an historical overview of the war by the head of the history department at Night City University. After each of these speeches is short patriot musical number or poem.
The Team notices some of the reporters they know. Both Bambi and Cam Newfield are in attendance. These two harass Shakira Hemings about who owns Reynolds Realty, but she isn’t forthcoming. Cam goes up to Cossack and asks how he has been. Cossack says back hello in Ukrainian and then switched to English. Cam remarks on how little damage South Beach sustained in the last Devil’s Night debacle. Cossack replies, “That is what happens when a neighborhood comes together.”
Cam asks if he took part in the defense. Cossack downplays his role as merely moving police and security units around to meet incoming attacks. Cam gobbles it right up, then asks who Celestin is. She introduces herself.
Bambi comes up to 8-Ball and Mia and greets them. She is impressed that South Beach suffered so little damage. He replies that the neighborhood focuses on maintaining a safe and secure environment. Bambi inquires if he knows who actually owns Reynolds Realty, but he has no idea. The afternoon goes by uneventfully and the planned festivities go off excellently.
That evening there is the party at the Chrome Berets headquarters and bonds between the three chapters are forged. The Chrome Berets all meet Celestin and 8-Ball brings Mia. Both Bambi and Cam Newfield come on the news and do complimentary ‘puff pieces’ on the today’s event. All in all, it has been a great day for South Beach.
***
Saturday, November 12, 2072:
There is a 9 am Team meeting at the house about what to do about the new incursions of the Voodoo Boyz. Mitzi invites the whole Team. Only Jamal who is working is unable to attend as he is working at the hospital. Mitzi opens the discussion with the suggestion that they do some extensive surveillance and research into the Voodoo Boyz and the Burkett Mall. Suzy suggests getting a Surveillance Kit to start with. Mitzi tells Fawkes that he should consider getting some kind of speed boost such as Speed Grafts. He will consider it. Cossack tells the group about his and Celestin’s efforts to research the ownership of those buildings. He asks Suzy how to research this off line. The NET Runner tells him he must request access to examine the paper files at City Hall, which has a long waiting list. Cossack asks if anyone knows, who owns Reynolds Reality, but no one knows.
Cossack moves on and suggests a drive through of the area around the Burkett Mall and Blood Reign territory to look for a change in gang signs. They could use the van from the old Team and mount a Go Pro camera to record this surveillance. If the Blood Reign is gone, then the question is, who runs the area now? The decision is made to have 8-Ball, Mitzi, Cossack and Hollow take the van and do the reconnaissance. Before they depart, Mitzi works on a forged license plate to disguise the van so it won’t be traced back to them. Three of them get ready, while Cossack head down to the Southland Mall and picks up a small Go Pro camera for this job. He then heads back to South Beach and picks up 8-Ball, Cossack and Hollow. They head over to the 88th Street Station neighborhood.
The group gets off the highway and drives through the old neighborhood. For Mitzi, nothing has really changed except for the late Marco Baronti’s destroyed old hotel and casino. They drive by the Blood Reign’s headquarters. The building has their gang sign on it, but none of the gang are in evidence. They loop around to the south. There isn’t much reaction, except for the occasional rock thrown at their van by some kids. The Team decides to drive by the Burkett Mall going on Chezney Avenue. There are some juvies hanging out in front of the mall. One of the youth takes the van’s picture and another runs inside. They speed up a bit when out of sight. They then pass through the Shining Lotus Triad’s area where Mitzi recognizes (and is recognized by) a Triad member. There is no reaction as she has never has issue with this group. The Team heads back to the highway and on home to South Beach.
Once home, 8-Ball looks into where to buy a stealth suit. Fawkes calls Kronos and asks if they can meet and talk. His mentor suggests this coming Monday, 7 pm at the Forlorn Hope.
***
Sunday, November 13, 2072:
Mitzi heads down to local Catholic Church for Mass. 8-Ball gets on the Scholar to confirm his Archery +2 skill. Cossack walks Celestin down to the South Beach Hotel for the Cyber Revolutionaries’ rehearsal. This will be her first night as their choreographer and she has a lot on new ideas. Jack Masters of Universal Records is there to watch. After the rehearsal he tells the group that a spot just became available to open for the superstar rocker, Destiny at the Stateline Auditorium in Stateline (of course) on Thanksgiving Night. The gig is theirs, if they want it, which, of course, they do.
***
Monday, November 14, 2072:
Mitzi looks up a place to buy a Surveillance Kit and finds a store that has it in stock. She and Fawkes head over and buy it for €3,500. 8-Ball has his Mandarin Lesson. At 7 pm, Fawkes gets to the Forlorn Hope for his meeting with Kronos. The two exchange pleasantries and Kronos asks how he likes working with Whyte Hat. Fawkes tells them he finds them fairly “contemplative”. When asked what he means, Fawkes replies that the Team likes to think things through a lot. Kronos is surprised by this and tells him, “They have changed a bit then. They used to be quite the ‘wild cards’.”
Fawkes asks about the Team’s relationship with the Voodoo Boyz and is told that the Team did slap that gang around a few years ago, but the two groups made peace since then. He warns Fawkes that the Team has strong gang connections in Night City and many of the Team members are listed in the Night City police’s gang database. Kronos himself has no recent information on the Voodoo Boyz and this gang hasn’t piqued any interest from the C.I.A. or any of his other contacts.
Fawkes then asks if he has heard of any jobs that his new Team could do. The answer is no, but his mentor says he will keep his ears open and call Mitzi if anything comes up. The two talk for a while about old times and hopes for the future.
***
Tuesday, November 15, 2072:
In the morning, Mitzi and 8-Ball take a walk around South Beach. They spot a large truck from Davis Salvage and Recycling Company in the the 88th Street neighborhood. It crosses the 157th Street Bridge and heads south along Dawson Street. The two follow the truck which pulls into Suzy’s garage. Mouse is directing this truck to back up to one of the garage bays while Suzy is talking to the supervisor of the Davis Salvage crew. One of that crew, who has a linear frame, begins working with a power loader operator from Reynolds Realty and the two start moving a large amount of scrap metal from the garage bay into the truck. Mitzi waves to her friend, who waves back and continues dealing with the Davis Salvage people. 8-Ball and Mitzi complete their walk of the neighborhood and then head home.
Cossack and Celestine get on Whyte Hat’s computer and begin researching all the new articles and any mention of the history of the Blood Reign. All they find is articles about some of the gang’s mega violence and the rumor that this gang and the police can to some sort of ‘understanding’ to keep the two apart.
Late in the day Mitzi gets a call to come to the Forlorn Hope and talk with Kronos. After Fawkes’ conversation with him yesterday, he decided to give the Team a bodyguard job he has to fill. It is a gig that needs three solo types, a driver and a doctor, and all should have an understanding of Japanese. A skill chip will do. The base pay is €2000 per person plus an additional €2000 for each major incident that they foil. The package’s aide will makes the call, if an ‘incident’ is worthy of a bonus. Of course, nothing will be paid, if the package dies. They will pick up the client at the airport this Friday and drive him to the Federal Building for a meeting. After this they will take him to the Hotel Yamagumi in Japan Town, where the client will refresh himself before you will take him to a performance of the Nagagowa Kabuki Troupe at the Bodukkan Center for the Performing Arts. They will then drive their client to Las Vegas that night because he will have a meeting or two on Saturday. The client will want to go out to the casinos that night. They will stay at a safe house that night and in the morning drive him to the Spaceport at the Edwards COG to depart the country. The contract will end there.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons and Mitzi calls a Team meeting afterwards to discuss this new job. Mitzi selects Jake, 8-Ball and Fawkes as the bodyguards. Jamal will be the doctor and Cossack will be the chauffeur. This Team must be prepared to be well-dressed.
***
Wednesday, November 16, 2072:
8-Ball has his motorcycle test. Mitzi brings him and he passes this test easily. Fawkes heads over to Bob Waite’s shop to buy an average quality business suit with an SP 10 shirt and pants. Cossack spends the day studying routes and alternates he will need to take for the job this weekend. Later Celestine give Cossack a lesson on Expert: Computer Use.
Cossack walks Celestin down to her (and the band’s) rehearsal at the South Beach Hotel and then heads to the Team’s house to review the video of the drive thru of the Blood Reign’s territory and the Burkett Mall. He is able to discern that several of the juvies on the video were serving as look-outs for someone. Meanwhile, 8-Ball has his Mandarin Lesson.
Mitzi gets a call from her contact, Detective Richard Tanque. The man has talked with the 88th Street precinct, who did a surreptitious sneak and peek of the Blood Reign’s buildings. That booster gang has disappeared and it is assumed that they most likely are dead. Their old buildings are empty and completely looted. Also, a new gang has entered that area, They are called Loco. The detective knows nothing about them except that they have met with the 88th Street precinct commander and the two have agreed to continue the truce that the police and the late Blood Reign had: The police will stay to the east of Boswell Avenue and Loco will keep everyone in their area from raiding the 88th Street neighborhood. This was able to be accomplished since two former low level members of the Blood Reign have joined this Loco group and smoothed the transfer of the peace agreement. Detective Tanque knows nothing about this new gang and was hoping that Mitzi does, which she doesn’t. The fixer makes sure the entire Team will learn of this new turn of events.
When the rehearsal ends, Celestin and the band exit without Suzy and Samantha. Celestin hands Cossack his tool kit that he left at Suzy’s garage and tells him that the dancer said, “He might want these.”
When Cossack and Celestin get home she tells him that their band has been booked next week at the Stateline Auditorium to open for the Destiny on Thanksgiving. This could be a big break for them.
***
Thursday, November 17, 2072:
In the morning, 8-Ball walks down to Suzy’s garage to talk with her about doing some work on his bike. Mouse brings him back to where she is working on some rather large engines. These are the Rolls Royce AV engines that powered the ‘punknaught. 8-Ball wants his bike smart-rigged, run flat tires and a halogen lights installed. Suzy offers to do this for free, but 8-Ball insists on paying full price. He isn’t looking for a favor, but tells her that, “I just want someone I can trust working on it.”
The young woman’s face breaks into a big smile at his reasons for having her do the work.
That evening the Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons. Jake throws in a short lesson on some social courtesies of Japan.
***
Friday, November 18, 2072
The escort Team arrives at the Night City Airport for their new job. They are brought to the executive lounge where a Japanese man and woman wait. Jake steps forward greets the woman who has also steps forward and the two speak. She brings Jake over and introduces him to the still unnamed client, who looks at Jake with a hint of curiosity and asks, “Do you know a Honzo Kitagawa?”
“I have the honor of being his nephew,” is the reply.
The clients attitude immediately changes and he gives Jake a bow. It is one that a superior would give to an inferior, who he still respects. Jake then introduces the client to the rest of the Team using their proper names. 8-Ball performs a perfect greeting and a deep bow which does impress the client, who replies with a noticeable nod of his head. The rest of the Team gets a slight nod at their introductions.
As they are walking through the main airport concourse. The Team sets themselves up in a triangular protective arrangement. There is a Japanese couple having an argument. They move to avoid them. Jamal thinks this might be a diversion and looks around and sees a small Japanese child running towards the arguing couple shouting, “Mummy, mummy!”
He realizes that the child will pass right next to the package, so he attempts to stop him. The child slaps Jamal’s hand and pricks him with a hidden needle containing a virulent Bio-toxin. The doctor makes his poison save but still takes 21 points of damage. He fails is stun save, but makes his Death Save. Fawkes moves to attend to Jamal and the others rush the package out of the terminal. The ‘child’ disappears into the crowd as do the ‘arguing couple’ in the confusion. The Team heads to the Federal Building. Fawkes calls Mitzi and lets her know what just happened. The fixer contacts Rue to join the protective detail. Jamal wakes up, realizes the problem and calls the military hospital in North Oak. The people at the base send an AV ambulance and take the Navy Seal to their hospital for treatment.
The Team gets the package safely to the Federal Building where he spends hours in his meetings. The United States Diplomatic Security Service arrives to investigate this attack and grill the package’s assistant on how the would be assassins could have found out about this meeting. It is clear they suspect her, but she blames the American government for the leak. No one suggests the Team was involved. The diplomatic agents inform the party that they are going to change some of the itinerary and will inform them later of any changes. When the package comes out from his meetings, he immediately inquires about Jamal’s health. Once assured that the man who saved his life is fine and, they all head to the Hotel Yamagumi.
Their package has a penthouse suite at the hotel. 8-Ball insists that the Team do their own security sweep of these rooms before they let their client enter the room. Jake and Fawkes stay with the package. Cossack parks and waits in the car, so no one will mess with it. 8-Ball looks over the client’s rooms. In the bedroom, the solo spies a small metallic sider hiding up in the corner. 8-Ball pulls his handgun and fires. His first shot misses this tiny target, but the second shot destroys the robotic assassin. With the sound of gunfire being heard, Fawkes draws his weapon, and enters the room. The two complete the security sweep of the room. When hotel security arrives, 8-Ball gives them a piece of his mind about their sloppy security. The security people tell the solo, if he doesn’t like it, they can leave. Jake and the package come into the room and their client calmly tells the hotel security that they will remain here. Jake is also very placid and asks 8-Ball to join him in the next room. In the next room, Jake’s demeanor changes as he schools 8-Ball in Japanese etiquette. “Never shout, even at an inferior. It shows you are rattled by the incident, which is what the client will see. Always display a calm and controlled disposition. Showing anger and emotion, will be interpreted as incompetence and weakness.”
“Got it,”8-Ball replies.
Jake starts to leave, but stops at the door, turns around with a smile and says, “By the way, that was a great shot.”
The Japanese solo sweeps up the parts of the robotic spider, puts it in bag for later study. The package decides that they will have dinner sent up, but delivered to another room downstairs. The Team picks it up, checks the cart thoroughly. They bring the food upstairs where the client’s assistant uses a wand plugged into one of her interface plugs to test for poison. There is none.
Rue arrives and is introduced as Jamal’s replacement. She has a report from the hospital where Jamal is being treated. The military doctors have identified the poison as a type of Bio-toxin II that is usually used by assassins from Asia. Jake shows her the parts of the destroyed robotic spider. Rue pulls out her gear and scans it. What is apparently a needle of some sort also has the same type of Bio-toxin from the airport attack.
The package and the Team enjoy a delicious, non-poisoned dinner and then head over to the Bodukkan Center for the Performing Arts to watch the Nagagowa Kabuki Troupe, which is one of the finest troupes in the world. The Team sets up an effective but subtle defensive perimeter around their client. After the show, this man is allowed to meet with the performers who treat him with great respect. The Team then heads to the elevator to go down to the garage.
Meanwhile, in the garage Cossack is standing guard over their limousine. Kronos approaches him with a man that bears a resemblance to the Ukrainian. Kronos tells the Team’s driver to give this new man the keys and follow him to the elevator. The ex-spook hands Cossack a long coat, dark glasses and a new hat. The elevator door opens and there is a group of people that somewhat resemble the rest of his Team, the package and his assistant. This new group heads for the limousine while Cossack and Kronos take the elevator up and meet with the rest of the actual Team. The group is taken to the roof where an AV-4 comes in. It is piloted by their friend, Zora. Kronos leaves as they and the package board the AV and head south over the ocean. Once they are a good distance from Night City, Zora turns east and flies to just outside of Las Vegas to land in a field. There another limousine is waiting. Cossack gets behind the wheel and finds a flimsy with an address on it. This is a walled safe house. The Team sets up watches, but the night is uneventful.
***
Saturday, November 19, 2020
The Team takes their client to three meetings around Las Vegas during the day. Their package’s aide is very concerned about the obvious security leaks. During the first meeting, she tells them she believes they aren’t the leak, but obviously there is a much bigger problem than she has anticipated. She looks to the Team for some suggestions. The first and second meetings go off without a hitch. The Team wants the client NOT to go out to the casino tonight as protecting him there will be a nightmare. Of course, the man insists on doing this, but by now his assistant is backing the Team’s suggestion and starts working on him to give up this foolish idea. She finally succeeds in convincing her boss, the casino evening is a bad idea.
During the third and final meeting, Jake leaves the room to make a call. Fawkes thinks it would be best to get another vehicle. Jake comes back and tells them he has acquired a new safe house. The Japanese – American solo asks if everyone has kept their phones on the whole time. Yes, everyone has. It dawns on them all that their opposition would only need one of theirs or their two Japanese clients to be able to track them. Everyone removes the battery from their phones. When the Japanese – American solo hears of Fawkes’ idea to get a new vehicle, he likes it, but how to safely find one. The aide says she is able to run the NET a little bit, so she gets online and monitors Jake’s phone as he calls Red, explains their problem. The two arrange for a Bensen Cascade hovercar for tomorrow and a driver to take their (compromised) limousine back to the old safe house. In the safety of the garage, Dickie, Red’s right hand man comes by and gives the Team the keys to a new safe house and takes the limousine away. A few minutes later, a plumber’s truck pulls in and drives the package and the Team to a crappy house by the Vegas Combat Zone. The package doesn’t like this, but does like being alive so he acquiesces to this change of plans. It is a quiet and uneventful night in the new safehouse.
***
Sunday, November 20, 2072:
The next morning a man pulls up in a Bensen Cascade hover car and gives Cossack the keys. It can only fit three passengers, so only 8-Ball will accompany the package and his assistant. The rest of the Team heads to the Golden West Hotel and Casino and puts their batteries in to draw off any attack. Unfortunately, no one looked up and didn’t see the drone that has found them. This fairly intelligent stratagem to draw the assassins to the Golden West doesn’t work and Cossack is immediately pursued by a group of wheeled vehicles. The Ukrainian heads off into the desert and easily leaves the attackers in the dust. A military escort picks them up outside the Edwards COG and they are brought to a hanger. The package and his assistant get out. The aide, who was both terrified and impressed by Cossack’s outrunning the desert ambush tells him that, although no gunfire was exchanged, she is going to list this encounter as a bonus incident. The man offers him her hand and says, “Compliments of Cossack’s Wild Ride.”
This surprises her, but she shakes his hand and smiles. The package looks to Cossack and actually gives him a slight bow, which the driver returns with a proper response in Japanese Their (now) ex-client just acknowledges 8-Ball with a slight nod. The two board an executive SST and depart. Cossack and 8-Ball bring the Bensen Cascade back to Las Vegas and rejoin the Team.
Back at the Golden West, Fawkes heads onto the gambling floor and tries to pick up a waitress. He isn’t successful, but doesn’t embarrass himself. A car comes to casino to pick up the Team at the Golden West and brings them to the airport where Zora waits in an AV-4 to take them back to South Beach in Night City.
Mitzi gets a call when her Team is on the flight back. Kronos and the client are very pleased with the Team’s work. Each member involved will receive €8,000 and the ex-spook says that more jobs will be forthcoming. 8-Ball checks the news feeds for anything related to this mission and learns that the decoy limousine leaving the Boduukan for Las Vegas was destroyed by multiple missile hits while on the Interstate just outside of Night City killing everyone in the limo. Also, their first safe house in Las Vegas was attacked by a heavily armed team, while they were in their combat zone safe house.
***
Monday, November 21, 2072:
Celestine has her motorcycle test today, but has no motorcycle for her to use. Cossack won’t call Suzy and ask her for a ‘loaner’, so Celestin does. Suzy is in school and calls Mouse to tell him to slap a temporary plate on the bike that the girl has just finished for Celestin to use. Unfortunately, the young Ukrainian woman fails the test. She gets an appointment for a retest, next month.
8-Ball gets his Bermuda smart-linked, has the run flat tires put on along with the new headlights and muffler. It is Mouse that does most of the work. The solo also has Mandarin lesson later that evening.
***
Tuesday, November 22, 2072:
Reynolds Realty Crew #4 start work on the hotel. This fully commits the Reynolds Realty’s work crews to the South Beach Hotel’s reconstruction. The company’s old crewew #5 has become mall and property repair group. The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Wednesday, November 23, 2072:
Most of the Team goes about their normal business around the neighborhood, except for Cossack, Celestine and Suzy. They leave in the afternoon with the Cyber Revolutionaries for Stateline to be able to rest before their big show tomorrow. South Beach Redevelopment finishes rehabbing buildings #909 & 913. Most of them are already rented and will be completely by December 1st. 8-Ball continues with his Mandarin lessons that evening.
***
Thursday, November 24, 2072:
Thanksgiving Day! The Cyber Revolutionaries open for Destiny in front of a rowdy cyberpunk crowd at that city’s auditorium. They perform a great show and even that super group is impressed. Afterwards, the band attends a Thanksgiving after party where a real turkey feast is served. Cossack sees the old man that entered the band’s dressing room freely during their gig at the Grand Illusion a while back. He learns that this is Jack Masters, the President of Universal Records, a giant in the national music industry. The man has taken an interest in the Cyber Revolutionaries. The guests at this party are a rough cyberpunk crowd and Celestin stays close to Cossack, as all the women get hit on. Samantha, Cassie and Kessie are adept at fending them off. Suzy stays close to Loco Skysinger and Cossack learns that the those two have had a long on and off again relationship.
***
Friday, November 25, 2072
The band returns to Night City in the morning after an exhausting but successful show in Stateline. The rest of the Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons in the evening.
***
Saturday, November 26, 2072:
In the morning Cossack calls Suzy and asks if that bike she let Celestin use is for sale, which it is. It is smart linked and the price is €4,500, but since it is for Celestin she will knock €500 off the price. Cossack and Celestin head down to her garage to pay for the bike and pick it up. When they get there Suzy reduces the price further and gives it to them for €3,500. Cossack tells the young woman, “Thanks for looking after Celestin.”
This comment appears to catch Suzy by surprise. As the three are walking to the last bay where Suzy does her work on motorcycles, Cossack spots the two large engines that Suzy is working on, but doesn’t know what they are. The man does knows how to find out and give Suzy’s fragile ego a boost. He identifies them incorrectly as engines for a racing boat. Suzy helpfully corrects him and says, “No, they are two Rolls Royce Pegasus Vector Thrust Turbofans. There are used to power AV-4s.”
Cossack tells her. “They look military,”
“I got them off the Feral Folks’ punknaught. I am using the damaged one for parts to repair the other two,” she says.
When asked what she was going to do with them, Suzy tells him, “I’m going to sell them. They are worth 75 to 100,000 euro apiece.”
Cossack is disappointed and tells her, “I thought someone of your talent would want to build another vehicle around them.”
Suzy tells him these engines actually belong to the Team, but she does have something she wants to rebuild. She hopes to use the money from the sale to do it. They head to the next bay where Cossack sees the hull of an A-20 Panzer. Suzy explains, “This is what the punknaught was built around.”
Suzy and Cossack begin to ‘geek out’ over this hull and even begin to smile at each other. Celestin watches this interaction and also smiles. She and Suzy have become friends so the rocker wants her new friend and boyfriend to get along.
Next: Episode 35 – Universal Records Christmas Tour
-
Another past episode is ready. For anyone reading these stories, it will give you a look into how this Team got where it is today, and give my players a reference. So here we go!
Episode 33 – The Aftermath of Devil’s Night
There is no attack on South Beach on Halloween, but the Team does go to Morrison Square to the north to help repel a small gang assault there. There is more news about the ‘Blue Goo’ mystery that Mitzi has been investigating. This time it deals with the Blood Reign, a violet. psychotic booster gang just west of her old neighborhood. She seeks some information from the Thunder Gods, a 1% biker gang in that area that hates the boosters, but they know nothing about it. Many on the Team spend their pay from the recent Detroit job to acquire more cyberware and gear. Mitzi acts as a go between and hooks up Celestin with her friends in the band, the Cyber Revolutionaries. Mitzi and Fawkes head over to the Burkett Mall in the combat zone just west of the 88th Street neighborhood and make a discovery that may connect with the ‘Blee Goo’ mystery, but this almost costs them their lives.
Background
A disparate group of Edgerunners from America and the Ukraine were brought together by a mysterious patron named ‘Marty’, who openly admitted she intended to misbehave. Well misbehave she did, this Team found itself about to be arrested on numerous capital charges. Marty, was revealed to be Martina Vargas / Lupescu, the illegitimate daughter of the late infamous Venezuelan Drug Lord, Jorge Vargas. With few prospects of surviving the wrath of LEDiv, they accepted Marty’s offer to follow her to the port city of Buenaventura in Colombia. As the only major port on that country’s Pacific coast, this city is hotly contested by all the cartels in the region. Martina ‘Marty’ Vargas, who had worked for all of these cartels at one time or another, was now considered a rising star among them. She was made ‘Arbiter’ of disputes in the city. To the Team’s surprise, they learned that Marty was actually working with elements of the Colombian government who were being covertly supported by the C.I.A. and other international agencies to crush the cartels and restore the power of the central government in Bogotá.
This was accomplished (for the most part) and the Team returned to the United States with their true identities restored and their records cleared. Back in Night City they decide to remain together and continue their work as Edgerunners. With all the corruption and evil, they have seen, the Team also decides that, besides making a living, it is time to take a stand. To those who threaten the innocent with evil, their new mantra will be “Thou Shall Not Get Away With It!”
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Solo 7]: 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. Also, he acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 6]: 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 work in Colombia has led to the government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu, this coming October.
Hollow (Arthir Dawnson) [Solo 7]: This formally angry and resentful young man comes from a crime family in the Pacific Northwest and did a little time himself back in 2066. He broke with his family because he was unhappy with the direction they were going, followed by the death of his friend and mentor, a Judo instructor. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped him discover the identity of his mentor’s murderer and arranged for him to kill that man personally. This has calmed many of the demons that have been plaguing this young man.
Jake Kitagawa [Solo 7]: A 21 year old “Hafu” (half Japanese, half Anglo) solo who was born in Night City but moved back to Japan at one year of age. He only spent a few years there and, after the death of his Japanese father, moved back to the United States with his mother. He is an old friend of Mitzi and belonged to that same team that was scattered by Marco Baronti. Jake now does a good business as a freelance bodyguard.
Mitzi Blaize [Fixer 3 (Covert Operative 2 / Prowler 4)]: She is a local girl from a Night City combat zone who joined an up and coming Edgerunner Team with a powerful patron a couple of years back. They pulled off a few big jobs before some on her Team (not her) crossed a local Mafia Capo, Marco Baronti, who murdered their patron, many of her friends and scattered the others to the wind. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped her exact bloody revenge not only on Marco Baronti, but on the people who framed her father for a crime he didn’t commit, which drove this man to become a ‘family destroyer’.
Rue Perlo [Medtech 8]: She is a former Washington State National Guard medic from Seattle. Her sister was a hanger on at her hometown chapter of the Chrome Berets and served as their medic. This is where Rue became a friend of 8 Ball’s. When this solo put out the call for help for the Night City chapter, she answered this call and was hired by Marty full time. Her dream has to get her medical degree and become a certified doctor. Getting this was Martina’s promise to Rue. On her return to Night City, she will be enrolled in Medical School and in three terms will receive the training and certification as a legal Doctor of Medicine.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [NET Tech]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and hid her in Federal Witness Protection while they built their case against Baronti.
The NPCs
Arturo Diaz [Businessman]: The Brazilian immigrant is the owner of the San Paulo Gun Shoppe.
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity, and Cossack’s girlfriend. Part of the driver’s deal with Marty (and by extension, the C.I.A.) was that they would get her released from prison and to the United States.
Cyber Revolutionaries (A Band)
- Billy Chou: He is the keyboard player in the band Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Cassie Banes: She is Tom and Ari Banes’ sister and the bass player of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Donny Clarke: Is the guitarist for the Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Kessy Ado: Is a young woman whose parents are from Ghana. She is the drummer of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Loco Skysinger: He is a male Chiricahua Apache and lead singer of the Cyber Revolutionaries. He isn’t happy when someone asks if he is a Mexican. He is, after all, a full blooded Apache.
Don Whitaker [Reason 7]: A slightly shady lawyer of Mitzi’s and Suzy’s acquaintance, who was used by her old Team.
Fat Carl [Fixer]: This man runs a drug den called ‘Dope 4 Dopes’ at the Burkett Mall just west of the 88th Street NCART Station.
Felipe Morales [Ganger]: He is one of the chief lieutenants of the Thunder Gods Motorcycle Club and an ex-boyfriend of Suzy.
Mia Byrnes [Art Student]: The girl is now a senior at Night City University’s Fine Arts School. She found 8-Ball attractive and interesting initially because he had a Mohawk haircut in the style her soldier father wore. The girl idolized her dad and was crushed when he was killed in the South Am Wars by Cartel Forces. 8-Ball shielded her during the gunfight at the Art Gallery and while she would normally have nothing to do with a ganger, his actions convinced Mia to give him a chance.
Mouse (Michael Floyd) [Gang Rank 3, Jury Rig 5]: This young man is the shy, introverted kid from the neighborhood who drifted into the Chrome Berets due to his technical skills. His brother Karl, who was killed during the Security Associates assault, was a member and convinced the gang to accept him due to his technical talents. This young man has flowered in the gang.
Detective Richard Tanque [Cop]: An old friend (and contact) of Mitzi’s who works out of Night City’s Precinct 2 in the gang unit.
Ricky Hidalgo [Streetdeal 4]: He is a friend of Mitzi’s from her old neighborhood, who now works as Red’s (a notorious gunrunner and former member of her old Team) representative in Night City.
Samantha Burke [Netrunner]: This beautiful young woman is old friend of Mitzi and some on her old team currently enrolled in the Masters of Computer Science Program at Night City University.
The Action
Monday, October 31, 2072:
Due to the on-going violence, NCU and all schools cancel today’s classes. It does calm down by late morning. Most of the Team gets some sleep. 8-Ball uses his sleep inducer to be in action quickly. Suzy uses her sleep inducer and then goes to her garage to begin to strip down ‘punknaught. Crews #2 & #3 of Reynolds Realty (fresh from Building #950) joins Crew #1 at South Beach Hotel, but Suzy redirects them to help her strip down the ‘punknaught.
8-Ball goes to the San Paulo Gun Shoppe and asks Arturo Diaz for a good leatherworker who could make him a custom holster. He then uses the Scholar system to get his initial Heavy Weapons 1 training.
By 2 pm, Mitzi gets up and there is a message from Vito to call him. They connect and Vito tells her he has heard a report that three members of the Blood Reign booster gang staggered into the Police secure area of the 88th Street Station and started attacking people & police. The gangers were killed quickly. When he examined the bodies, he found ‘Blue Goo’ coming from their mouths and noses. His boss, the local deputy coroner, isn’t concerned and the local PD are too busy dealing with the rampaging hooligans to look into it. He has been ordered to destroy the bodies by the coroner, but has secured samples, if she is interested. Mitzi and Fawkes get on her Long Rider motorcycle and go to the 88th Street Station neighborhood and the Kip Avenue Health Center to pick up the new samples of ‘Blue Goo’. He tells Mitzi that the neighborhood was overrun last night on Devil’s Night. Vito lets the fixer see the three bodies. Mitzi actually knew one of them. This provisional deputy coroner says it was kind of funny to see the Thunder Gods and the police fighting side by side defending the neighborhood.
When the two return to South Beach, they take fire on highway, but the shots missed. On her return she calls Richard Tanque, her police contact, and they chat about the recent violence. Cossack withdraws a smart linked Kalashnikov A-80 from the Detroit job for his personal use. Mitzi takes the other Kalashnikov A-80 from the Detroit job.
8-Ball normally has Mandarin Lesson, but due to the violence in the area postpones it until Friday. When nightfall comes the Team is ready for deployment, but no attack reaches South Beach. The Morrison Square neighborhood is struck and calls SBS for reinforcements. Cossack and his GevHog with 8-Ball, Hollow and Jamal head up there and help the Morrison Square Protective forces easily repel an assault from the Freedom Park area. South Beach remains tranquil.
***
Tuesday, November 1, 2072
In the morning, Cossack and Celestin go to the Southland Mall and buy a TV, video player and 10 new films plus they order cable services for their apartment. Mitzi talks with 8-Ball about getting a single type of official assault rifle for Whyte Hat. They decide to get the Militech Dragon and Mark IV (revised) with its 6.5 hybrid cartridge. Mitzi orders 4x Dragons, 6x Mark IV (revised) with 10 magazines each with 3000 rounds of AP ammunition. There is some discussion about whether this should be bought from either Red or Arturo Diaz.
Fawkes and Angel start working on weapons back to the Team’s workshop in the basement of the Team’s house and begin to clean and (Angel) alters the rifling. Suzy drives to 88th Street neighborhood and gets a signed release from her lawyer, Don Whitaker, so the storage company will release the old company van from her, Mitzi’s and Jake’s first Team. She then goes to where the old van is stored and brings it back to South Beach.
That evening the Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Wednesday, November 2, 2072:
Angel makes an appointment at Cyberworld to get interface plugs, Universal Link and a Chipware Socket for tomorrow. Mitzi calls Ricky Hidalgo and makes a lunch date for tomorrow to have a chat. Afterwards she calls Suzy, who answers immediately. The girl is outside the Team house and wants the fixer to open the garage door. Suzy has the old company van and it is filled with the weapons they scavenged from the battle with the Feral Folk and their ‘punknaught. Mitzi calls in 8-Ball and Fawkes to help unload. There is actually more than that as she has also brought the remains of that old Team’s spare weapons, a box of used cybereyes and a bunch of skill chips. These new (old) weapons are all ‘clean’. The van has a new registration and title.
Mitzi tells Suzy about the death of the Blood Reign members who had the ‘Blue Goo’ coming out of their noses. Mitzi thinks someone might be targeting the gangs and wonders if Suzy would go and have a talk with the Thunder Gods about this. The girl reluctantly agrees to do it later, since she has a rehearsal tonight.
Cossack arrives just as the two young women finish talking. Suzy says hello to the Ukrainian as she leaves, but he seems to just ignore her. She interprets this as a deliberate snub because of the uncomfortable incident meeting Celestin at the Forlorn Hope a few days ago. In truth, the man just didn’t hear her. Cossack is there to ask Mitzi, if she can arrange a meeting between Celestin and the Cyber Revolutionaries because his girlfriend thinks she can help them with their act. When Mitzi tells him that Suzy knows them better, Cossack replies that he thinks that girl has some problems with him and would rather not do so.
Mitzi, who had noticed Suzy’s reaction to his previous ‘assumed’ snub replies, “Well, she might like you better if you were a little nicer to her.”
Still, he would rather have Mitzi make the introduction to the band, so she agrees to arrange a dinner with Cossack, Celestin and the band.
8-Ball goes to the San Paulo Gun Shoppe and orders red dot sight and some extra extended magazines for his Seburo shotgun. Later that evening he confirms his Heavy Weapon +1 skill after getting his Mandarin Lesson. Angel also orders some tactical webbing in his effort to learn how to make his own, and Fawkes arranges to get one of the used cybereyes that were just delivered
***
Thursday, November 3, 2072:
Early in the morning 8-Ball gets his initial Heavy Weapons +2 on the Scholar Unit. Celestin follows him on that unit and gets her initial Rifle +1 training. Angel goes to Cyberworld and gets his Interface Plugs, Universal Links and Chipware Socket. He decides to rest for the day. Later on, Cossack brings Celestin to Bob Waite’s and the two buy some armored clothes. Mitzi calls Cassie Banes, her friend and bassist for the Cyber Revolutionaries, to invite them all over to dinner. They arrange for this dinner on this coming Monday. Suzy can’t go and talk to Thunder Gods today because she has lots of classes today, so she and Mitzi reschedule for Saturday.
Mitzi has lunch with Ricky Hidalgo to talk some business. She orders the four Dragons and six Mark IV (revised) assault rifles (all along with 100 regular magazines for them along with six boxes of AP and four boxes of DP ammunition for them. She also orders six double sized magazines.
8-Ball heads to the motorcycle dealership and picks up his Delta Motors Bermuda. Unfortunately, they won’t let him take it off the lot since he doesn’t have a motorcycle license. The solo calls the Night City DMV and makes an appointment for Wednesday, November 16th to get his license. He then arranges to have the Bermuda delivered to Suzy’s garage. 8-Ball goes over to the garage to ask to have some work done on his bike. The solo notices the ‘punknaught isn’t outside and asks where it is. Mouse tells him that it has been partially dismantled and is filling up a number of the repair bays. Unfortunately, there isn’t any room in the garage bays for his Bermuda, so 8-Ball drives the two blocks back to the Team house and the garage there.
The Team (less Angel), Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Friday, November 4, 2072
Fawkes goes to Mitzi to get more ammunition for his M-90 sniper rifle, and she will get another 20 rounds from Ricky. 8-Ball gets on the Scholar and confirms his Heavy Weapons +2. Celestin follows her and confirms her Rifle +1.
Mitzi leaves to go and find Ricky. He is happy to add Fawkes’ requested ammunition. Mitzi then heads to the Southland Mall and buys herself a Cooking +3 skill chip.
Angel finally feels better and inspects the van that Suzy brought over. He is impressed that it is already up armored, with run flat tires, armored windows, benches, rifle racks and a rotating license plate holders.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen again have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Saturday, November 5, 2072:
Mitzi and Suzy ride their motorcycles over to the Thunder Gods bike shop. However, when Suzy takes off her helmet and the 1% bikers look a bit stunned and angry. Mitzi whispers to her friend, “I thought you got along with these guys.”
Out from the office comes Felipe Morales, one of the chief lieutenants of the MC, and a former ‘boyfriend’ of Suzy. He doesn’t appear happy. The man grabs Suzy roughly by the arm and pulls her into the office saying, “We have to talk.”
Surprisingly she meekly complies. There are some tense moments, but the two come back out and whatever the problem was, it seems to be settled. Felipe is ready to listen to Mitzi. The fixer fills the bikers in on the ‘Blue Goo’ mystery and her suspicions that this is some kind of experimental combat drug that the creators are testing on unsuspecting gang members. She goes on to tell him about the three Blood Reign members who attacker the police station and were under the influence of this new drug. The bikers did here about that incident, but know nothing about this ‘Blue Goo’. They do appreciate the information and will keep their eyes and ears open. Filipe does have a piece of information that is of interest to Mitzi: No member of the Blood Reign has been seen, since Devil’s Night. Mitzi postulates, “Maybe they are all dead.”
“We couldn’t be that lucky,” Filipe replies.
The fixer does know that these two gangs hate each other. The gang lieutenant thanks Mitzi for the information and he will inform the rest of the Thunder Gods and get back to her if they hear anything. He ends the conversation with, “You can go now, but she will stay,” indicating Suzy, who appears a bit nervous at this command.
“Are you OK with this?” the fixer asks her friend.
Suzy replies nervously, “Yeah, you better go.”
Cossack gets Celestin on the Scholar and she receives her initial Rifle +2 training. She calls Suzy every couple of hours to make sure her friend is alright, but she doesn’t answer. Later in the afternoon, those in the Team house hear the roar of many motorcycles coming over the bridge from the Tong’s neighborhood. It is the Thunder Gods. Mitzi calls Suzy and this time she answers. The young girl tells her fixer friend that she and Filipe had a lot of ‘catching up’ to do. He wasn’t very happy that she didn’t call him on her return to town, but she helped him get over that. Suzy then went on a ride with ‘club’ up and down the highways. With her concerns satisfied, she asks her if she wants to come to the dinner she is having for the band, which she does A few minutes later, Cassie Banes calls the fixer and they arrange for the band dinner for this coming Monday. Everyone is informed.
In the afternoon, 8-Ball heads to the Southland Mall and buys himself a Scholar chip for archery. 8-Ball and Mia have their weekly ‘date night’ to go dancing up town. Before picking her up, the solo heads to the offices of the ‘Maxxes’ (the Night City University campus police to drop a set of Whyte Hat business cards off for the students, who might want an extra layer of protection. The cards are politely refused, since it also a service that this group offers and they are not willing to advertise a rival’s service that they themselves offer.
***
Sunday, November 6, 2072:
Fawkes calls 8-Ball in the morning and asks if he would like to do soon running with him regularly at the Veterans Memorial Park. They agree to start doing this on Monday. Around noon, Mitzi calls Wu Chang’s Restaurant and orders up a dinner for ten to be delivered on Monday.
Later that night the Cyber Revolutionaries have a rehearsal and they all agree to come to Mitzi’s for dinner.
***
Monday, November 7, 2072:
Fawkes and 8-Ball have their first run in the park. As they come to the park, they spy Suzy finishing her own early morning run. Cossack arranges for a motorcycle license test on Monday, November 23rd for Celestin. Later in the day, 8-Ball gets on the Scholar and gets his initial Archery +1 training, before heading off to his Mandarin Lesson.
Dinnertime comes around and the band comes over for Mitzi’s Chinese Feast! Both the band (including Suzy), Cossack and Celestin arrive at the same time. Cossack gets ready to make drinks, but learns there is no alcohol in the house. The Ukrainian asks what people want and he hustles to the Southland Mall nearby and gets what people want. Mitzi is left to take charge of the situation and tells the band that Celestin was impressed when she saw them. The five band members immediately start bombarding Celestin with questions and overwhelm the young woman whose English isn’t so good. She is rescued when Cossack arrives and is able to translate a bit for her and explains that his girlfriend is impressed with their anti-corporate message. Finally, Suzy and Celestin chat back and forth in Italian, but Suzy’s isn’t so good. The two young women test out each other’s languages and discover that both speak Romanian. Celestin explains that while she is a Ukrainian, her family is ethnically Romanian. Suzy tells her that she has spent a lot of time ‘working’ in Romania. Just exactly what the nature of that work was, Suzy is vague. Mitzi jumps into the conversation as she also speaks passable Romanian.
Mercifully the food arrives and along with the alcohol that Cossack brought the group loosens up. Finally, Celestin asks Cossack to inquire to Loco Skysinger, the front man and singer, who does their choreography. Her boyfriend does and is told that Suzy is their choreographer. Cossack doesn’t consider this good news. Loco informs Celestin that Suzy was a professional dancer. Celestin inquires what kind of dancing did she do. When she realizes that Suzy was a stripper, the Ukrainian woman is a bit embarrassed. Suzy finally asks Celestin what she thought of her choreography. The Ukrainian hesitates a bit and then gives her an honest and critical opinion. The ex-stripper isn’t offended and the two begin to discuss Celestin’s thoughts on improving the dancing. This is all spoken in Romanian, so much of the conversation is lost on most people.
Cossack engages the rest of the band, explaining Celestin’s trouble with the Ukrainian authorities that led to her imprisonment. The rockers are incensed by what his girlfriend went thru leading them to look on Celestin as a kindred spirit. Finally, Suzy asks Celestin if she would like to attend the next band rehearsal on Wednesday. The offer is accepted and the band agrees. Celestin is informed that the rehearsals are now taking place on the stage at the closed South Beach Hotel, which they have gotten permission to use. The rest of the evening is filled with relaxed, casual conversation. 8-Ball arrives home after his Mandarin lesson and joins everyone for some left-over Chinese food and conversation.
***
Tuesday, November 8, 2072:
Later in the afternoon, Rue comes by with a report about the new ‘Blue Goo’ sample that Mitzi got from Vito after Devil’s Night. This new sample seems to be different from the previous one. This sample, however, is definitely fatal if taken. Whether this is deliberate or not isn’t known. Mitzi begins to think that they should try to buy some of this new drug. Rue tells them that a sample of the drug before ingestion would be very helpful. Mitzi ponders the problem.
8-Ball uses the Scholar to confirm his Archery +1 skill level. The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons that evening.
***
Wednesday, November 9, 2072:
8-Ball again gets of the Scholar and gets his initial Archery +2 training. Cossack continues to work with Celestin on her Handgun skill in the Team’s basement range. That evening 8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson.
Later, Celestin and Cossack head down to the closed South Beach Hotel to attend the Cyber Revolutionaries rehearsal. He drops her off. Mitzi heads to the band rehearsal to talk with Suzy but can’t get in. None of the band is answering. They are in rehearsal, so she tries calling Celestin, who gets the guard to open the door. The fixer goes up to Suzy and asks for her help in trying to score some drugs since, “you used to do that sort of thing.”
Being reminded of this part of her past doesn’t please the young woman, but she suggests hanging around the park by the 88th Street Station, or going to Fat Carl’s shop, ‘Dope 4 Dopes’, at the Burkett Mall. Suzy tells her NOT to say hi to Carl for her. Mitzi stays and watches the rehearsal. Suzy translates for Celestin, who is surprised that Samantha also speaks passable Romanian. The two dancers and the band are very accepting of Celestin’s suggestions and agree to let the Ukrainian come up with some new choreographed routines. Both Mitzi and Suzy walk Celestin home after rehearsal.
***
Thursday, November 10, 2072:
Mitzi wants to try the Burkett Mall to see if she can find some ‘Blue Goo’. She asks if anyone will go with her and Fawkes volunteers. Others on the Team, including Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons. Since Mitzi is well known in the neighborhood she puts on a disguise (roll of 31 with some Luck), and the two take the NCART to the 88th Street neighborhood. On arrival in Mitzi’s old neighborhood, they continue down 88th Street west until they reach the mall entrance on the corner of 88th and Chezney Avenue. This entrance opens into the old food court, which has been become a hangout for the juvie gangers of the area. Mitzi suffers some catcalls and such from the juvies, but Fawkes’ presence limits this harassment. As they round the corner and head south down the main corridor Mitzi notices that it hasn’t changed too much. It’s still an urban sewer. The two enter Dopes 4 Dope and Fat Carl is sitting behind his protective glass. Mitzi walks up and tells him, “We are looking for some ‘stuff’.”
Fat Carl smiles back, missing about a third of his green teeth and replies, “Well, I didn’t think you were here to look at my beautiful face. What ya looking for, sweetie?”
Mitzi hems and haws a bit. But isn’t very specific. Fat Carl looks at Fawkes and asks, “Is she always so bad at this?”
The Ukrainian responds, “Yes, when she isn’t high.”
The two Team members haggle a bit with Fat Carl and settle on 5 unidentifiable pills that the pusher guarantees they will like. They pay for them and leave. However, as they walk out of the shop’s door they spy some adult gang members down south in the main hallway and standing in front of a store that Mitzi remembers was called ‘Used Stuff’. There is a new sign announcing a new store called ‘Port au Prince Trading Post’ is opening tomorrow in its place. There are a couple of gangers that neither Mitzi or Fawkes recognize. The two decide to walk the other way and leave. Behind them there hear a voice shout, “Hey, you two, stop!”
The two Team members continue to move away. There is the sound of rapid footfalls behind them and the same voice shouts, “I said stop, you fuckers!”
Both Mitzi and Fawkes start to run. A gunshot whizzes by the two, who exit the northeast door of the mall at the corner of 88th Street and Airport Road. Mitzi is much faster, quickly gets to the corner on the next block north and out of sight. Cossack reaches the corner, stops and fires his Llama at the pursuers, but he botches the shot. His weapon jams. The two continue to zig zag among the buildings and are fired on a couple of more times as they try to get to the safety of the police patrolled area of the 88th Street Station. On reaching a corner on Chezney Avenue, Mitzi looks south and sees another pursuing ganger. She recognizing him as a member of the Ogun Set of the Voodoo Boyz. This set is that gang’s enforcers! They both continue to run to the east. When the two Team members reach Boswell Street, there is nobody chasing them. The two move quickly to the NCART station to head back to South Beach. Before they get back Cossack surmises that the Voodoo Boyz may have moved into the neighborhood. Mitzi feels that this might be the case since the Thunder Gods said that no one has seen any of the Blood Reign in days, and that booster gang would never tolerate the Voodoo Boyz in their area.
Mitzi immediately calls for a Team meeting and as they all assemble, she calls her friend and contact, Officer Richard Tanque, to inform them that the Voodoo Boyz appear to have displaced the Blood Reign in the Burkett Mall. They inform everyone about what just happened. Mitzi turns the drugs she bought over to Jamal and Rue to have them analyzed. The idea to just go down and clear out the Burkett Mall is turned down, since Mitzi had just called her cop friend about the Voodoo Boyz being in the Burkett Mall. Any massacre or fight there would immediately cast suspicion on the Team.
Next: Episode 34 – The Veteran’s Day Celebration and a Job
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First of all, I have NO desire to further complicate what I consider a somewhat bloated combat system with too many more rules and such, except when I deem them necessary. That said, here we go:
- Accurately throwing a human being isn't an easy thing as we are not particularly aerodynamic. I do agree that it would cause less damage to the person being thrown. That said armor WILL now apply to any damage that the victim sustains. As the speed the body is traveling thorough the air would be particularly fast, dodging the body would be VERY easy, and the damage sustained would be minimal. Yes, it would 'disrupt' the actions (somewhat) of the person being hit, and this could be tactically desirable depending on the specific situation. As to the difficulty, I don't wish to put a specific difficulty modifier to it and further complicate a 'bloated system'. If you do want to throw someone at someone else, then I will take into consideration on how many points you beat the defender's (the person thrown) opposing roll, and the Reflexes of the target that you are throwing your victim at. The attack WILL be disruptive (if you hit), but the flying opponent will now get his armor deducted from any damage he sustains.
- Kenjutsu and Kendo (the two most used sword arts) have NO key attack that would be necessary to do the catch or grab maneuver, and I am NOT willing to rewrite the rules (again) to take this into account. The rules are an approximation of the reality of combat for game purposes. I consider the 'Disarm' maneuver contains what is needed to accomplish the task.
- Dislocating, breaking and other wise doing things along those lines are covered in the PacRim Martial Arts rules (pages 141 & 142). If you don't want these to actually kill your opponent (and you are a skilled martial artist), I have always given the attacker the option of declaring BEFOREHAND that any damage won't be lethal, although in this case (limb & joint damage), it will heal a such and might contribute to lowering the Death Save on future rolls. I already have safeguards in place for not accidentally killing someone that a trained martial artist doesn't want dead. As such, a trained martial artist may declare, BEFORE the to hit roll (or for the attack), that this damage is just STUN or IMPACT. The default is always LETHAL damage. Once this declaration is made, it applies to the whole current combat, until the Martial Artist declares otherwise (again, BEFORE a to hit roll is made). Furthermore, a martial artist may declare a 'cap' on the damage inflicted by his or her attack. This cap doesn't take into account any armor or BTM of the opponent. This generally only important for head hits, so as to not kill someone who you wish to speak to or bring in alive. The cap declaration can not be made location specific. It is a risky maneuver but you can always use the STUN ATTACK on page 144 of PacRim. As a note, the STUN Attack DOES NOT work against someone in hard armor that encases the whole body. It might work against someone in Moto Cross Armor or tattered Metal Gear, but someone in Militech EMA-1 Softshell is just going to chuckle at the attempt. When in doubt just ask before you make your to hit roll.
I am not trying to be difficult, but at this moment I am in the middle of trying to learn how to use the Roll20 system and I don't wish to complicate the system even more. Since just about everyone on the Team is a trained Martial Artist, everyone already has plenty of 'tools in the toolbox' to engage the types of opponents you will probably face in Venezuela.
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Well, I have now stripped off all of the information from the old ASTRAL site that we will need to continue, and I can get back to these questions and such here.
I should have stated earlier that it is SOP for Whyte Hat to equip all of its armored vehicles with an AGAMS system from Maximum Metal. The AEAMS system was rejected since it could be a threat to any friendly infantry in close proximity guarding the armored vehicle.
As to a militia for the Shoshone Wells Colony, they don't have one because some members of that tribal band already serve in the Wells militia itself. None of the other colonies have a militia, although cooperation between the South Fork Reservation's Tribal Police and the Sheriffs has become closer since the county has dedicated their new SWAT unit with its Arasaka 10 (courtesy of Whyte Hat) to help in the defense of both the white and native populations in that area. The Tribal {Police also have a reserve among their members.
I did run the idea of a leadership course by Mitzi (Wyn), but she thinks (quite correctly) that this could be perceived as an insult to local leaders. True, you and Whyte Hat have made tremendous inroads into winning over the locals, but there is still some lingering suspicion about you all as "outsiders". Only time will change that.
As to running a school program, that might be quite feasible (and desirable), but school funding is still still a problem. It is getting better and that should soon become a possibility.
Now on to Episode 60 and a look into the new arc. The upcoming fashion photo shoot in Venezuela is just that. It will allow me and players not familiar with the Roll 20 system to become more familiar with it, while giving everyone more 'role-playing' time rather than just combat 'roll-playing'.
Here is the planned itinerary for the photo shoot:
- Wednesday, July 8: Depart on a private jet from the Harriet Airport in Wells, Nevada to Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean. You will be flying over that island and Suzy likes to visit there to scuba dive off the reefs. The group will be staying there for three days and two nights at a 5 star hotel on the beach with Suzy picking up the tab for everyone. There will be test photo shoot and an evening of clubbing with the international jet setters there.
- Friday, July 10: The Team flies into the Simon Bolivar Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela on the north coast and will check into another 5 star hotel. There they will meet the Dutch representatives of the clothing line who are sponsoring these photo shoots and local assistants. A couple of scheduled photo shoots will occur over the next few days at beaches, historical locations and other sites around the city.
- Monday, July 13: The Team will board a Dutch registered mega yacht for a trip along the coast west to Porto Columbia (still in Venezuela). There will be another shoot on the yacht during this time.
- Tuesday, July 14: There will be a beach photo shoot on the famous Playa Grande (a beach) and an opportunity to mingle with the normal citizens of Venezuela.
- Wednesday, July 15: The yacht will continue down the coast to Puerto Cabello and dock. You will take a vehicle inland to a picturesque waterfall just outside of the town of Alpargatón for the last official photo shoot in Venezuela.
- Thursday, July 16: In the afternoon the yacht will head up the coast to the Morrocoy National Park and anchor off the Cayo Playa Azul.
- Friday, July 17: The morning will again find Suzy again indulging her passion for scuba diving in this jewel of Venezuela's park system. For those that don't dive, the yacht also has a small, civilian submarine so everyone can enjoy this rare underwater jewel. The yacht will then depart for Oraniestad, Aruba, which is this ship's home port.
- Saturday, July 18: The yacht arrives in Aruba and the Team finally disembarks this vessel for good. There they will be brought to another 5 star hotel on the beach. Suzy has committed herself to a few interviews with the European press, but the main plans for the evening are fine food, dancing and perhaps some gambling at the hotel's casino.
- Sunday, July 19: There is the final photo shoot of the trip and a large press contingent is expected. That evening the Team departs from the Queen Beatrix International Airport on a private jet for the flight back to Wells, Nevada.
Well, this is the plan anyway. The Team will be allowed NO weapons in any of these destinations, although non-lethal options might be able to be negotiated once you arrive in these various places. By now most of the Team are lethal weapons themselves. Heavy armor is also forbidden, but expensive (read: more than generic & average quality) can be brought and worn. FYI, the yacht you will be traveling on has a crew that is cleared to have weapons aboard to repel pirates, but they will NOT be available to any of the Team. The yacht is also quite able to defend itself against pirate attacks.
Well that is the latest update on what you can expect. As always, questions are always welcome!
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Well, here is another of the back episodes. I am trying to summarize each of these the best I can, but often I find information that needs to be included to better understand what is going on, if only for my information as I look back on the story. We are about to start Episode 60 in this iteration and there are 25 Episodes in the previous campaign that serves as part of the backstory for this one.
Episode 32 – Devil’s Night
The Team rests after their last mission in Detroit. The C.I.A. fulfills its promise to Cossack and gets his girlfriend released from prison in the Ukraine. They meet a local band, the Cyber Revolutionaries, who are playing at the Forlorn Hope and there is much dancing. Devil’s Night comes around and violence explodes in all the surrounding neighborhoods of South Beach.
Background
A disparate group of Edgerunners from America and the Ukraine were brought together by a mysterious patron named ‘Marty’. The Team found itself about to be arrested on numerous capital charges. Marty, was revealed to be Martina Vargas / Lupescu, the illegitimate daughter of the late infamous Venezuelan Drug Lord, Jorge Vargas. With few prospects of surviving the wrath of LEDiv, they accepted Marty’s offer to follow her to the port city of Buenaventura in Colombia under some new identities. As the only major port on that country’s Pacific coast, this city is hotly contested by all the cartels in the region. She was made ‘Arbiter’ of cartel disputes in the city. To the Team’s surprise, they learned that Marty was actually working with elements of the Colombian government who were being covertly supported by the C.I.A. and other international agencies to crush the cartels and restore the power of the central government in Bogotá.
This was accomplished (for the most part) and the Team returned to the United States with their true identities restored and their records cleared. Back in Night City they decide to remain together and continue their work as Edgerunners. With all the corruption and evil, they have seen, the Team also decides that, besides making a living, it is time to take a stand. To those who threaten the innocent with evil, their new mantra will be “Thou Shall Not Get Away With It!”
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick) [Solo 7]: 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. Also, he acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Angel Torres [Techie 4]: This outwardly morose individual grew up in a family of small time urban criminals in the ruins of Los Angeles. At an early age he showed a talent for technical things and developed an interest in guns and armor. The family’s background led to a number of scatterings to avoid ‘legal complications’ gave this young man an unstable upbringing, which contributed to his negative outlook on life. Fortunately, he remained close with his middle sister, Gloria, and moved to Night City. There is sister’s sometime boyfriend, Ricky Hidalgo, introduced him to Mitzi and this led to his joining the Team.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) [Panzerboy 6]: 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 work in Colombia has led to the government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu, this coming October.
Hollow (Arthir Dawnson) [Solo 7]: This formally angry and resentful young man comes from a crime family in the Pacific Northwest and did a little time himself back in 2066. He broke with his family because he was unhappy with the direction they were going, followed by the death of his friend and mentor, a Judo instructor. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped him discover the identity of his mentor’s murderer and arranged for him to kill that man personally. This has calmed many of the demons that have been plaguing this young man.
Jake Kitagawa [Solo 7]: A 21 year old “Hafu” (half Japanese, half Anglo) solo who was born in Night City but moved back to Japan at one year of age. He only spent a few years there and, after the death of his Japanese father, moved back to the United States with his mother. He is an old friend of Mitzi and belonged to that same team that was scattered by Marco Baronti. Jake is preparing to open a Dojo in South Beach.
Jamal Hemings [Medtech 7]: Jamal is now one of the Team Medics. He was born in a black working class neighborhood in Detroit in 2042. When Jamal was 15, his younger brother was killed by a cop for “playing with a toy gun while black.” This had a profound—though not immediately obvious—impact on Jamal. When he graduated from high school two years later at age 17, he joined the Navy. He entered the Navy SEALS where most of his work remains classified. It was Suzy that brought him into the company and the two are close. While his family is Moslem and his father was devout. His mother is more relaxed about prayer observances. So, Jamal did not learn Arabic initially, but has used his military educational opportunities to correct that. He is fluent now. As he grew older, he became more respectful of his religion. He is currently attending medical school in Night City.
Mitzi Blaize [Fixer 3 (Covert Operative 2 / Prowler 4)]: She is a local girl from a Night City combat zone who joined an up and coming Edgerunner Team with a powerful patron a couple of years back. They pulled off a few big jobs before some on her Team (not her) crossed a local Mafia Capo, Marco Baronti, who murdered their patron, many of her friends and scattered the others to the wind. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped her exact bloody revenge not only on Marco Baronti, but on the people who framed her father for a crime he didn’t commit, which drove this man to become a ‘family destroyer’.
Rue Perlo [Medtech 8]: She is a former Washington State National Guard medic from Seattle. Her sister was a hanger on at her hometown chapter of the Chrome Berets and served as their medic. This is where Rue became a friend of 8 Ball’s. When this solo put out the call for help for the Night City chapter, she answered this call and was hired by Marty full time. Her dream has to get her medical degree and become a certified doctor. Getting this was Martina’s promise to Rue. On her return to Night City, she will be enrolled in Medical School and in three terms will receive the training and certification as a legal Doctor of Medicine.
Samantha Burke [Netrunner]: This beautiful young woman is old friend of Mitzi and some on her old time currently enrolled in the Masters of Computer Science Program at Night City University.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [NET Tech]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and hid her in Federal Witness Protection. With Baronti’s death she (and others) came out of hiding, and sued the mobster’s estate. She received a three story apartment house and enough money to go to NCU.
Xavier Aguinaldo (Fawkes) [Combat Sneak 6]: The young man was born into a large Snake Nation Nomad Family. While working on a Petrochem CHOO2 a greedy corporate flagrantly violated the family’s employment contract and bought off local authorities. His parents led a work action which was ruthlessly crushed after this legal action was declared an ‘insurrection’. His parents were arrested and his family scattered (and he believed killed). Wandering alone, he was eventually able to enlist in the United States Army where he served for twelve years eventually making the Special Forces. Cutbacks forced his retirement where he drifted to Night City and the Forlorn Hope. There he contacted his old friend and mentor, Robert Cronenberg (Kronos), who got him a job working with Mitzi’s new Team.
The NPCs
Ari Banes: An aging old South Am War Special Forces veteran, who was captured near the end of that second conflict, but not released for years. He was railroaded on a charge of desertion to cover the failures of his incompetent but politically well-connected immediate superior officer on his return. Ari is eventually cleared (mostly) of the charges and is released from Leavenworth with a less than honorable discharge. That discharge was reviewed at the behest of several retired military officers who Ari served with and his discharge was upgraded to Honorable along with a promotion. He is the ½ brother of Tom Banes.
Arturo Diaz [Businessman]: The Brazilian immigrant is the owner of the San Paulo Gun Shoppe.
Billy Ray (William Raymond) [Gang Rank 5, Combat Sense 1]: This young man was headed into a life of petty crime until his childhood friend Sarge returned by military service. The gang and its discipline brought Billy Ray back from the brink. He also works with girlfriend Linda, who is co-owner of Mary & Linda’s Restaurant.
Celestin Antonescu [Rocker / Poet 6]: She is an ethnic Romanian from the Ukraine, who was imprisoned for years for anti-government activity, and Cossack’s girlfriend. Part of the driver’s deal with Marty (and by extension, the C.I.A.) was that they would get her released from prison and to the United States.
Cyber Revolutionaries (A Band)
- Billy Chou: He is the keyboard player in the band Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Cassie Banes: She is Tom and Ari Banes’ sister and the bass player of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Donny Clarke: Is the guitarist for the Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Kessy Ado: Is a young woman whose parents are from Ghana. She is the drummer of the Cyber Revolutionaries.
- Loco Skysinger: He is a male Chiricahua Apache and lead singer of the Cyber Revolutionaries. He isn’t happy when someone asks if he is a Mexican. He is, after all, a full blooded Apache.
Kathleen Knowles [Child]: She is the 12-year-old sister of Crusher and Mary Knowles who was brutally gang raped by members of the Storm Kings. She had become completely non-verbal and withdrawn, but, thanks to funding from Cossack, has gotten enough therapy and regained her voice.
Kronos (Robert Cronenberg😞 A retired(?) C.I.A. officer from the Second South Am War and regular at the Forlorn Hope.
Linda Johnson (Billy Ray’s girlfriend) [Gang Rank 2]: She is one of the women the Team freed from Storm Hold.
Marlo (Traci Jo Marlowe😞 This woman is a former member of LRT-601 and now works as a street rep for the Militech Corporation. She is a regular at the Forlorn Hope.
Mary Knowles [Cook]: She is the nineteen-year-old sister of Kathleen and Crusher. She takes care of her sister and cooks for the Chrome Berets.
Mr. Smith [C.I.A. Officer]: A somewhat mysterious man, who some members of the Team met in his role when he recruited them to work for Martina ‘Marty’ Lupescu at the beginning of this adventure.
Mouse (Michael Floyd) [Gang Rank 3, Jury Rig 5]: This young man is the shy, introverted kid from the neighborhood who drifted into the Chrome Berets due to his technical skills. His brother Karl, who was killed during the Security Associates assault, was a member and convinced the gang to accept him due to his technical talents. This young man has flowered in the gang.
The Professor (Dr. John Freeman) [Fixer 8 (Solo 4)]: This man served as a Captain in the Rangers during one of the South Am Wars and was commander of LRT-601. A wound forced him out of the Army and he returned to Graduate School to finish his PHD in Military History. The grind of everyday life wasn’t for him so he returned to the people he felt most comfortable with: soldiers and ex-soldiers. Along with some friends he served with, he bought and restored the old Hotel Sierra in Night City and opened the Forlorn Hope in the lobby. It has become a home away from home for many ex-soldiers in Night City.
Ricky Hidalgo [Fixer]: He is a friend of Mitzi’s from her old neighborhood, who now works as Red’s (a notorious gunrunner and former member of her old Team) representative in Night City.
Ringo (Johnnie Peterson) [Solo/Bartender]: Lead bartender at the Forlorn Hope after Marianne, he is a former member of LRT-601 where he was the unit’s squad automatic weapons specialist. He sports a cowboy hat and a two-revolver fighting style.
Tom Banes: He is a young military veteran who was forced out of the service by a corrupt state administration. The man was born in North Oak and moved to the 88th Street neighborhood when he was eleven. He met most of the Mitzi’s old team when they all attended St. Mary’s High School together.
Udo Harris [Techie]: This man is married to Rashida (Hemings) Harris, Jamal Hemings sister. He lives in Detroit and works with the city’s water and sewer department.
Vitale “Vito” Agosti: A Medtech who was trained by his late father, a doctor for the Baronti Family, the local Mafia branch. He is a friend and member of the first team with Mitzi, Jake and Suzy. Vito is a high functioning autistic with Asperger’s Syndrome and soaked up this training like a sponge. The young man has earned his certificate as a physician’s assistant and works at the local clinic/hospital and serves as an assistant coroner in the 88th Street neighborhood.
Zora Pleshakova: A former Ukrainian High Rider from the Crimea, who served with the Russian space forces before turning on them and becoming a ‘terrorist’. She fled to the United States and drifted to Night City where she has become a freelance pilot.
The Action
Saturday, October 1, 2072:
8-Ball goes out to make some desired purchases. 8-Ball, Angel, Jamal and Mitzi make appointments at Raven Micro Cybernetics to get the promised installation of cyberware from the Detroit Job for this coming Monday.
Cossack and Mitzi heads to the Old Timey General Store. The driver wants to see if they have a bull’s head with horns to mount on his GevHog. Yes, indeed they have one!
***
Sunday, October 2, 2072:
Most of the Team just kicks back for the day. Suzy and Mitzi go and talk with Angel about all the equipment he will need to do his work for Whyte Hat. They agree to buy him what he needs, but it won’t all fit in the Team’s house. Suzy offers to let him have a few of the spare car bays in her garage so he can get all that he wants. She will NOT let him put a chemistry lab in her place. She also offers him her promised discount cyberware installation from Raven MicroCyb as long as he gets the Muscle & Bone Lace +3. Angel agrees and then asks her if she can get him the technical specs for the old Winchester Model 73. Suzy agrees to do that research.
***
Monday, October 3, 2072:
Fall Term begins for Night City University, so Suzy heads to classes.
8-Ball, Angel, Jamal and Mitzi all head to Raven for their cyberware installations. Cossack also goes with them to pick up his promised Micro Waldo Bracer while at Raven. The installation of Angel’s Neural Processor, new cyberarm and Muscle & Bone Lace +3 puts him out for a few days. Cossack goes out after dropping everyone off to buy a tool set before taking all but Angel home. Angel will be recovering for a few days.
South Beach Redevelopment crews (who have just finished office building on next block west divide; half continue to work on office block and half begin work on #939 which should be done October 21st) and #940 scheduled to be finished on November 4th.
8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson that evening.
***
Tuesday, October 4, 2072
Both 8-Ball and Cossack work at the Chrome Berets headquarters.
Fawkes is now at 8 damage points and is released from hospital with additional -5 to REF. The ex-military man has questions about what he saw during the Detroit Job and goes to see Suzy. When he talks to the young woman about the mil-tech program that ran in his cybereye, she just asks, “Did you liked the 'new interface'?”
He presses her on how she got a hold of the tech, but she calmly replies that the system is 'classified' and Fawkes doesn't have a high enough security clearance for her to answer any of his questions about it. Her tone on this point is apologetic, but that is all she can say about the classified optics system.
He then points out, “Your combat skills far better than any 'college student' should be.”To that she smiles and responds, "Well, I wasn't always a college student."
To this Fawkes emphasizes that trust between ‘teammates’ is key. She agrees on the importance of 'trust' in a team; however, 'secrets' are another matter and adds, "Knowing certain secrets can get you killed."
The young woman is quite blunt when she states that she only completely trusts a tiny handful of people in the world and Fawkes isn't one of them, yet. After all she hardly knows him and he's never even really spoken to her outside of work. Suzy lets him know that she trusts him enough to work with him only because Kronos recommended him to Mitzi. This is nothing personal, the young woman tells him she has been betrayed too often to be too trusting of strangers.
That evening, the Team (now including Samantha) , Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons (4pm to 8 pm)
***
Wednesday, October 5, 2072:
Both 8-Ball and Cossack continue to work at the Chrome Berets headquarters. 8-Ball asks Rue to get him refills on his medical supplies that he used in Detroit, which she does.
That evening, Vito comes to see Mitzi. He has the medical reports and samples of the young man who died from the “Blue Goo”. She gives copies of the reports and samples to Jamal and Rue to bring to their medical schools for analysis.
8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson.
***
Thursday, October 6, 2072:
The work is finally done at Chrome Berets Headquarters. Cossack heads to Suzy’s garage and mounts the bull’s horns on his GevHog. Suzy isn’t happy that he has taken this long to get this job done. 8-Ball orders himself a Nova Arms Arno Revolver with ammunition, speed loaders and both handle and belt batteries from Arturo Diaz at the San Paulo Gun Shoppe.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons (4pm to 8 pm).
***
Friday, October 7, 2072:
There is a knock on Cossack’s door. It is Mr. Smith from the C.I.A. there to take him to the Ukraine to fetch his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu. A government car takes him to a military airfield in North Oak where they depart for Edwards COG via North Oak to catch orbital shuttle to Johnson Space Platform. On arriving in 0-G the Ukrainian feels a little nauseous, but it passes. The two stay in the American Diplomatic section, and a couple of hours later, Cossack departs on a shuttle to Kiev. Mr. Smith remains behind.
***
Saturday, October 8, 2072:
Cossack arrives in Kiev by shuttle. American officials are waiting and take him to American Embassy. A briefing follows. Tomorrow, along with his American diplomatic escort, he will be driven to a small town near the prison to spend the night. The following day, Celestin will have her official hearing where she will be released. They will pick her up, drive back to Kiev and be put on a flight to the United States.
Back in Night City, the chief of South Beach Security asks for an informal meeting with Mitzi. They go to Mary and Linda’s Restaurant for lunch. Mitzi approaches the door to the restaurant, when she hears gunfire coming from the eatery. She sprints towards the gunfire, but notices a man get out of a car across the street by the San Morro Creek. Mitzi is fired upon by the man out in the street but he misses. Unfortunately, she runs right through the front door and into another gunman, who shoots her a point blank range. Her armor turns most, but not all, of the damage. Inside Billy Ray is exchanging fire with another shooter and little Kathleen sneaks up behind another of the robbers and stabs the man in the back. Billy Ray, Linda, Kathleen and Mitzi engage the gangers and eventually drops them. Mitzi does sustain some grievous, but not fatal wounds, before they drop the would be robbers. Outside the ‘wheel man’ flees. The South Beach Security chief arrives and makes sure Mitzi gets to the hospital.
***
Sunday, October 9, 2072:
Cossack along with three others, a diplomatic attaché, a driver and two security men drive to small hotel near prison by a circuitous route. Unfortunately, they arrive rather late to find the large bungalow they reserved has already been rented out and the four are stuck in a small one with only one bedroom.
***
Monday, October 10, 2072:
At about 3 am at the hotel in the Ukraine, gunfire is heard outside followed by an explosion. The two security people flip open a suitcase and produce a Militech Bulldog shotgun and an assault rifle. They look outside and report, “It looks like the bungalow we were supposed to have is being attacked.”
There are more explosions and gunfire. Soon the sounds of sirens are heard approaching, and the sounds of battle quiet. All of the people who had taken the quarters reserved for Cossack are killed. The American group remains in their small housing. One of the security men hands Cossack a small bag. Inside is a Colt AMT 2000 with a laser sight. It also contains three extended clips of 12 rounds each: one of standard, one of AP and the last being rubber bullets. Cossack loads the AP rounds. The security men contact the embassy and inform them of this incident.
Cossack and his group head over to the prison early. Apparently there has been a ‘change of plans’. They pull up and park across the access road outside the outer chain link fence, go inside to sign the paperwork, but not before they have to turn over their car keys. Afterwards they are directed back to their car. Soon, Celestin is brought out from the gate in the stone walls of the main prison complex escorted by three prison guards. The four walk out of the outer chain link fence and bring the girl to the diplomatic vehicle. The driver asks for the keys and one of the guards tosses them over with a smile. However, he tosses it between two of the diplomatic party. Cossack realizes something is wrong. The two Diplomatic Security Agents immediately pull up their weapons to fire. One shoots at Celestin at almost point blank range with an AK, but one of the security agent puts his body in the way and takes the hit! The second diplomatic security agent shoves Celestin in the car. Cossack turns back to where he just heard gunfire, pulls his weapon, shoots the guard who tossed the keys twice and drops him. Cossack grabs the keys and jumps into the driver seat. Their driver who had reached for the tossed keys is dead from a head shot. Again, one of the embassy security men takes a full blast from a guards AK, but it doesn’t seem to faze him. That man pulls a huge handgun and blows the heads off two of the remaining guards. Cossack starts the armored limo. He pulls out of the parking lot and heads away from the prison under a hail of automatic weapons fire from prison guards on the walls. The limo may be armored, but it takes too many hits and is soon in trouble mechanically. It does get out of range before failing completely.
The diplomatic security men call the embassy on their satellite phone and give a code words. These men do have a back-up plan it seems. One of them directs Cossack down a dirt road out of sight of the prison, but their transport eventually dies. They grab the bags out of the trunk and continue down the road. They reach a higher pasture where off in the distance they see a truck pull up to their disabled limo. Heavily armed men pour out and they don’t appear to be prison guards of any type. An AV comes in low from the west, lands, picks up Cossack, Celestin and the two security men. It lifts off and heads west, low and fast towards Romania. Celestin finds her voice. She looks at the man whose clothes are now shredded from taking all the bullets for her and asks, “How are you still alive?”
He just smiles and says, “I’m a cyborg.”
Then a familiar voice speaks from the cockpit in Ukrainian and asks, “Anyone call for an Uber?”
Cossack looks up and sees the pilot is Zora Pleshakova from the Forlorn Hope. He says to her, “Hey, long time, no see.”
As they head west to freedom, Celestin hugs her long lost boyfriend and whispers to him, “What is going on and who are all these people?”
Cossack says quietly, “Well, I did some favors for some ‘people’ to get you out. Do you want to come to America?”
“Do you want me to come there?” she asks.
Of course, the answer is yes. The young Ukrainian woman thinks for a second and says, “They were trying to kill me.”
“Well, actually, I think they were trying to kill me, and you were just a bonus,” he tells her.
The AV lands at the airport in Bucharest and Cossack is asked to return the Colt AMT 2000. There are Romanian officials on hand who quickly issue them entrance visas and exit papers before the three (Cossack, Celestin and Zora) are brought to a small SST. Mr. Smith is waiting there and warns them not to talk to anyone on this (diplomatic) flight. The flight goes to London for a brief layover before they head on to Washington, DC.
US State Department is on hand with a Green Card for Celestin along with a work permit and an application for a Federal Firearms license. Among the papers is a statement that absolves Celestin from her Ukrainian conviction which gives her a clean record in the United States. The three are then put on the MagLev to Night City. Cossack calls Hollow and arranges for him to pick them up when they arrive.
8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson.
***
Tuesday, October 11, 2072
Cossack & Celestin arrive in Night City and Hollow is there to pick them up.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons that night and Cossack brings Celestin to watch, so they all get a chance to meet.
***
Wednesday, October 12, 2072:
8-Ball’s Nova Arms Arno arrives and he unloads about 50 rounds to break in his grips at the San Paulo gun range. He also gets his Mandarin Lesson.
Cossack heads over to Suzy’s garage to work on the company van. She isn’t there, but Mouse is.
Mitzi finally gets to talk with the South Beach Security head. He warns her that Devil’s Night (October 30th) is approaching and there have been rumors of trouble.
***
Thursday, October 13, 2072:
Everyone goes about their normal day. Celestin continues to acclimate herself to her new city. The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Friday, October 14, 2072:
Jamal and Rue, along with their fellow students finish their analysis of the ‘Blue Goo’ samples they have. The two samples seem to be a development of, maybe, some kind of combat drug. It puts the body into overdrive, but is very unstable and often lethal. It is really beyond Jamal’s Chemistry 4.
Cossack asks Celestin what she wants to do now. Well, that would be to learn some more English. Cossack asks who she knows about anyone who teaches English. Mitzi says she will look into it.
***
Saturday, October 15, 2072:
Mitzi finds eight possible (and reasonable) teachers and four of them live in the Little Odessa neighborhood of Night City, two downtown, one in North Oak and one in Heywood. Cossack doesn’t think going to the four in Little Odessa would be a good idea, since the Ukrainian mob clearly has it out for him. The two teachers who live downtown are filled up, but will contact him when they have an opening.
8-Ball suggests that Celestin get a handgun since the neighborhood can be dangerous. They head on down to the San Paulo Gun Shoppe and decide that a Taurus Blue Scorpion would be a good choice. Unfortunately, she hasn’t submitted her firearms license yet, so they decide to do that on Monday.
***
Sunday, October 16, 2072:
Everyone spends a quiet day at home.
***
Monday, October 17, 2072:
Cossack and Celestin head downtown and apply for her Federal Firearms license. It is quickly granted and she receives her Taurus Blue Scorpion.
8-Ball asks Mitzi if he will give him some Motorcycle lessons. She agrees and they arrange to do that once a week. The solo goes to Bob Waite’s to get some motorcycle leathers, but he doesn’t deal in them. The merchant recommends he try the local motorcycle dealership in San Morro. 8-Ball goes to that motorcycle dealership, and picks up some motorcycle leathers. That evening the solo has his Mandarin Lesson.
Cossack then goes to the garage to work on the van. He notices that the Reynolds Realty crews are now starting work on the South Beach Hotel next door.
***
Tuesday, October 18, 2072
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen again have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Wednesday, October 19, 2072:
Fawkes goes to the Southland Mall to buy some new clothes. In the evening, 8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson.
***
Thursday, October 20, 2072:
Fawkes heads to the Raven Micro Cybernetics building downtown for his promised cybernetics at the agreed upon discount and gets some other enhancements too. This consists of subdermal torso armor, skinweave and Kerenzikov +2 with Boostmaster. The 14 points of damage puts him down for a while. 8-Ball heads to local motorcycle dealership to order up his new leather pants and boots. He also orders a Delta Motors Bermuda motorcycle.
The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen continue their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Friday, October 21, 2072:
Mitzi drops off one of her bullet ridden shirts at Bob Waite’s for repair. It will be ready next Wednesday.
Building #917 & #921 finished and is already rented completely. Building #939 done and is already rented; crew moves on to Building #934 (to be ready November 10th. South Beach Redevelopment
Reynolds Realty’s 2nd apartment in #953 and first half of #952 are finished and fully rented.
***
Saturday, October 22, 2072:
Mitzi learns that the band, the Cyber Revolutionaries, are playing at the Forlorn Hope, so she is going to go there that evening. The fixer is friends with all of the members of this band. They are from her old (88th Street) neighborhood. 8-Ball, Mia, Cossack and Celestin decide to go with her. The five enter and Cossack spies Zora Pleshakova, he and Celestin join her at the pilot’s table. Mitzi enters with 8-Ball and Mia. They spy Suzy in the back of the room having a serious conversation with Kronos. They decide not to intrude. Mitzi sees Ricky Hidalgo and goes to talk with him. Everyone gets drinks and soon the band comes onstage. With the band is Samantha and before they start playing Suzy also joins them on stage. The two young women strip off their rather baggy tops revealing dance costumes that show a bit of skin. The two also have microphones. Mitzi, Ricky, 8-Ball and Mia head to the dance floor. Cossack asks Celestin to dance, but she won’t. Ever since her legs were crushed by a police vehicle that sat there for ten minutes crippling her. She no longer wishes to dance as it reminds her of what she has lost. 8-Ball botches his dance roll and takes a bit of damage. Mia helps him back to his seat. The band begins and totally rocks the place. Suzy and Samantha act as dancers and back-up singers. The two ex-strippers are fantastic dancers, but just passable singers.
Mitzi and Ricky talk. She asks him if he has heard anything about this “Blue Goo”. He hasn’t, so she tells him a bit about it and he tells her that he will keep his ears open for anything about that. Ricky, however, tells her that he (and Red) are also always interested in buying ‘new product’. She pulls out her old Militech Avenger to sell and totally botches her Streetdeal roll. Ricky gets the weapon for ‘peanuts’.
The band finishes their set and Mitzi heads over to talk with the Professor. Marlo is at his table too. The two greet the Team fixer and congratulate her on the recent successful Detroit job. The fixer sits and talks with them. Suzy heads back to Kronos’ table but stops by where 8-Ball, Mia, Cossack and Celestin are sitting. They greet each other, but Mia says hello in Italian. Suzy answers right back, in Italian. Celestin jumps into that conversation as she also speaks Italian (better than either of the other two). The three young women chat a bit before switching back to English. Suzy turns to Cossack and asks, “So, this is the girl?”
Cossack seems a little disturbed by the question. Celestin notices this and looks back and forth between the other two before saying suspiciously to Cossack, in Romanian, “The girl?”
Backpedaling quickly, Suzy pops right back, in Romanian, “Yes, his old girlfriend, did I get the right one?”
Cossack answers, “Yes, the only one.”
“Only one, right, I’m sorry, my Romanian is not that good. The ‘only one’ is what I meant.” Suzy’s volume drops as she adds, “Well, I seems I may have caused enough trouble here, so I’ll just go now.”
The half-naked dancer / student heads back to Kronos’ table. In a rather flat tone, Celestin says to Cossack in Ukrainian, “She seems like fun. Is that the woman you work for?”
Cossack, who is clearly disturbed by the direction of this conversation, says, “No, I work for Mitzi.”
“Oh, is she the one who owns the garage where you are working?” Celestin inquires.
“I am doing the work for Mitzi.”
Celestin decides to drop this line of questioning. Zora is just sitting there watching and listening with a big smile on her face.
Back with the Professor, he inquires if Mitzi is open for jobs, which she is. He tells her that he is glad he took Suzy’s advice and hired this band, who get up and play a second set. People dance. During the next break, Mitzi heads over to where Kronos and Suzy are talking again. As the fixer approaches, Kronos give Suzy a sign to stop their conversation. As Mitzi sits down, Suzy excuses herself and heads back to be with the band. The two discuss recent goings on, including the attack on Linda & Mary’s Restaurant. Soon two men, one older and one a bit younger enter the Forlorn Hope. Mitzi recognizes them. They are Ari and Tom Banes, two members of her original Team and the brothers of Cassie Banes, the bassist for the Cyber Revolutionaries. Suzy gives the older brother a hug and lets out a squeal of delight at his presence. The two recent arrivals sit with the band and talk before the band’s third set. Mitzi heads over and asks Ringo, who isn’t working tonight, to dance, which he does, very well, in fact.
The rest of the evening goes on without incident. There is more drinking and dancing, except for 8-Ball who is resting his ankle. They finally head home a little while after the band ends.
***
Sunday, October 23, 2072:
Most of the Team uses this as a day of rest. Suzy comes to visit Angel and delivers him the technical specifications for the Winchester Model 73 he requested. She tells him the repair equipment that he wanted has arrived. Since he is down for a few more days, she will have it installed at her garage and he can come by when he is better and she will give him access codes to get in her garage shops.
***
Monday, October 24, 2072:
South Beach Redevelopment begins reconstruction of Building #909 & 913. They should be finished by Wednesday, November 23rd. Reynolds Realty begins rehab process on the second half of building #952 and expects to be finished on Friday, November 18th. The crew that was working on building #953 joins in on the preliminary work on the South Beach Hotel (#963). In the evening. 8-Ball has another Mandarin Lesson.
***
Tuesday, October 25, 2072
Angel heads over to Suzy’s garage where she gives him an access code to the bays that have Whyte Hat’s equipment installed. She programs his fingerprints and retinal scan into the buildings security computer, but warns him not to explore any other parts of this building. The girl has set lethal traps in many places. The techie begins the arduous task of repairing all the damaged armor from the Detroit job.
That evening the Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen continue their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Wednesday, October 26, 2072:
Cossack comes by to do more work on van. Angel fails miserably in repairing Fawkes’ soft armor, leaving it as just material for spare patches. Mitzi’s armored shirt is finished being repaired at Bob Waite’s and she goes to pick it up. That evening 8-Ball has another Mandarin Lesson.
***
Thursday, October 27, 2072:
Cossack again comes by to work on the new company van, but hits a problem he can’t solve. He asks Mouse for help, but this is beyond the young man’s knowledge, so he is forced to ask Suzy. The young woman is happy to help and does succeed in diagnosing the problem. She tries to ask how Celestin is getting along, but it becomes clear to her (whether true or not) that her inquiries aren’t appreciated, so she drops it.
Mitzi receives some very good news. Whyte Hat has been granted an automatic weapons permit for its employees.
That evening the Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen again have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons.
***
Friday, October 28, 2072:
The South Beach Redevelopment crews finish rehabbing building #940 finished and it is already fully rented.
***
Saturday, October 29, 2072:
After a week of heavy work for most, the Team takes it easy.
***
Sunday, October 30, 2072:
The day starts out quietly in South Beach. Most everyone isn’t concerned, but Mitzi isn’t so sure. It is Devil’s Night and she remembers her talk with the head of South Beach Security. Her worries prove to be well founded as just after sunset, everyone’s phone rings. It is the automated call from South Beach Security calling up the neighborhood reserves. This only happens when an incident occurs that the whole of South Beach Security’s active forces can’t deal with. Since the entire Team had signed up to serve in the SBS Reserve, they are being called up. In fact, Whyte Hat is officially called up, which allows them to arm themselves with automatic weapons. There is no explanation in the text alert, but still, the entire Team heads to their appointed rally points.
As the Team rushes to their assigned positions, they can see that large fires have broken out to the north. Cossack gets into his GevHog along with 8-Ball, Jamal and Hollow. The SBS chief has chosen him to serve as his mobile reserve. Fawkes’ assignment is to be on top of the western side of the roof of South Beach Hotel with modified M-90 sniper rifle. Suzy is positioned on the eastern side of the same roof with her Nomad Long Rifle. 8-Ball and others puts on his Militech Soft Shell armor but Jamal wears his SP14 military combat gear with ADAP inserts. Soon, word comes over the comms that three Punknaughts have entered the fight. They have crashed through the barrier fence under the highway. They then come across a bridge to the north that crosses San Morro Creek. Two of them continue west towards Morrison Square, but one turns south along San Morro Creek Road towards South Beach. Cossack and his GevHog are dispatched to stop this one. The Ukrainian rushes to his newly assigned position just over the line from the South Beach neighborhood in the Morrison Square area. Everyone disembarks to prepare the meet the onslaught.
The area is already aflame as rioters have been through here on their way to Morrison Square itself. Out of smoke ahead of the ground Team, the Punknaught roars into view. Most of the gangers on incoming vehicle are members of the booster gang, the Feral Folk, who have taken a particular dislike to South Beach and its inhabitants. Jamal opens fire early with his MPK -11 and kills one of the gangers. Fawkes looks to cripple the incoming hover monster by shooting out on of the engines, but he is set up at too much of an angle to hit the front drive engine located at the center, so he blows a ganger right off the top. Suzy, however, just fires at the vehicle and her random shot succeeds in crippling that forward motive gear (engine). The pilot maintains control, but the Punknaught skids to a halt in front of the Team’s fire line. The gangers jump off to engage.
Hollow greets them with an 40mm HE grenade from his under barrel grenade launcher. There is a ganger in metal gear manning a machinegun from behind an armored plate that blocks LOS from every character except Fawkes. The same angle that denied him his engine shot allows him to see down at this gunner. He hits the man’s arm and wounds him grievously. The rest of the Team pours out a curtain of lead into the advancing Feral Folk. The volume of the Team’s fire stops the booster’s charge, and the battle devolves into a firefight among the wreckage of the burning cars and buildings. The gangers continue to take fire from both the ground team and the two snipers on the South Beach Hotel’s roof. Whether enhanced by rage or combat drugs, the attackers continue to try advance, but get dropped by continual accurate fire from the Team.
Finally, the Feral Folk try to withdraw, but the Team isn’t having it. As the boosters fall back, the Team moves forward to finish them off. A few do get away, but most die. The Team gathers up enemy weapons, equipment and any loose change on the bodies. They are eventually recalled back to their rally point, but the attackers do not actually make it into South Beach. However, Morrison Square neighborhood to the north is devastated.
As the fighting dies down, Suzy calls Cossack and the others to come to her garage. She has her tow truck out and wants to snag the crippled Punknaught before it is stripped. They hook up the damaged vehicle and get it back to outside her garage. As dawn breaks, smoke can still be seen hanging over the city to the north, but apparently the worst fighting is over.
Next: Episode 33 – The Aftermath of Devil’s Night
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I have also had some issues with damages, especially with Maximum Metal. I just try to remember that it is a game, so I believe that the (under powered) damage from those big weapons as just a compromise between any sense of realism and play ability. The only way a character (unless a borg or in a ACPA suit) could survive a direct hit from a 75mm gun or larger is with the Luck rule allows you to roll a d10+LUCK (and adding any actual Luck points left for that session) to try and get a 15 to avoid instant death. Still under that rule the resulting damage can kill you. Therefore I try not to have huge weapons like that fire at individual people. A hit would be very rare indeed, although being in the blast radius of an HE round wouldn't be so difficult a shot.
By the way, I love the curious chaingun with a variable rate of fire depending on movement of the M13AAPC Charger and the special rules on the Targeting computer on the M45 Cushing. It gives variety and an approximation of design problems that often crop up with new technology even after the roll out of the equipment / weapons.
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Well, I do intend to do just summaries of these past Episodes, but this one was 90% written when I ran out of stream on this project, so I decided to finish it. I do want to leave a reference record for the future of this campaign that is still going strong after 60 Episodes. So here we go for Episode 31 and the end of the Detroit mission for Raven Micro Cybernetics.
Episode 31 – The Battle in the Plymouth Tower Continues
The battle in the Plymouth Tower comes to an end as the Team withdraws with most of equipment that Raven Micro Cybernetics wished for them to retrieve. This mega corporation is very pleased with their work and expresses a desire to continue working with them. This could be the beginning of a continuing relationship. The Team returns to Night City for a well-deserved rest.
Background
Most of the world has gone to shit. The Wasting Plague has devastated the world population. The United States has not fared well. Their constant warfare of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century strained their economy to the breaking point. When international financiers discovered that United States was manipulating international currencies to prop up their bloated debt-ridden economy, the world responded with a global embargo which collapsed the American economy right as the Wasting Plague hit and led to almost complete societal disintegration. The government was powerless to stop it, so the United States military stepped in. Still, they continued their futile Drug Wars in South America
Western Europe has risen from the ashes and is once again the shining beacon of civilization, but it is drunk with its own power. Instead of helping raise the rest of the world out of darkness, it has used its power to maintain its hold over the economy of the world. China and Japan have recovered to a great degree and stand opposed to any European hegemony. It took a few decades, but the United States put itself back together, more or less. The country is still fractured, but slowly recovering, although there are wide areas of lawless land from “sea to polluted sea”.
A disparate group of Edgerunners from America and the Ukraine were brought together by a mysterious patron named ‘Marty’. The Team found itself about to be arrested on numerous capital charges. Marty, was revealed to be Martina Vargas / Lupescu, the illegitimate daughter of the late infamous Venezuelan Drug Lord, Jorge Vargas. With few prospects of surviving the wrath of LEDiv, they accepted Marty’s offer to follow her to the port city of Buenaventura in Colombia under some new identities. As the only major port on that country’s Pacific coast, this city is hotly contested by all the cartels in the region. She was made ‘Arbiter’ of cartel disputes in the city. To the Team’s surprise, they learned that Marty was actually working with elements of the Colombian government who were being covertly supported by the C.I.A. and other international agencies to crush the cartels and restore the power of the central government in Bogotá.
This was accomplished (for the most part) and the Team returned to the United States with their true identities restored and their records cleared. Back in Night City they decide to remain together and continue their work as Edgerunners. With all the corruption and evil, they have seen, the Team also decides that, besides making a living, it is time to take a stand. To those who threaten the innocent with evil, their new mantra will be “Thou Shall Not Get Away With It!”
Dramatis Personae
8-Ball (Richard Miller – Don’t call him Dick){formally Christopher Crabb } [Solo 7]: 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. Also, he acquired a serious girlfriend, Mia Byrnes, a NCU college student and daughter of a deceased South Am Wars veteran. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Angel Torres [Techie 4]: This outwardly morose individual grew up in a family of small time urban criminals in the ruins of Los Angeles. At an early age he showed a talent for technical things and developed an interest in guns and armor. The family’s background led to a number of scatterings to avoid ‘legal complications’ gave this young man an unstable upbringing, which contributed to his negative outlook on life. Fortunately, he remained close with his middle sister, Gloria, and moved to Night City. There is sister’s sometime boyfriend, Ricky Hidalgo, introduced him to Mitzi and this led to his joining the Team.
Cossack (Stefan Petrovych Chernenko) {formally Voivod (Dragomir Huzar)} [Panzerboy 6]: 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 work in Colombia has led to the government arranging for the release from prison of his imprisoned girlfriend, Celestin Antonescu, this coming October.
Hollow (Arthir Dawnson) {formally Reginald ‘Reggie’ Thompson} [Solo 7]: This formally angry and resentful young man comes from a crime family in the Pacific Northwest and did a little time himself back in 2066. He broke with his family because he was unhappy with the direction they were going, followed by the death of his friend and mentor, a Judo instructor. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped him discover the identity of his mentor’s murderer and arranged for him to kill that man personally. This has calmed many of the demons that have been plaguing this young man.
Jake Kitagawa [Solo 7]: A 21 year old “Hafu” (half Japanese, half Anglo) solo who was born in Night City but moved back to Japan at one year of age. He only spent a few years there and, after the death of his Japanese father, moved back to the United States with his mother. He is an old friend of Mitzi and belonged to that same team that was scattered by Marco Baronti. Jake is preparing to open a Dojo in South Beach.
Jamal Hemings [Medtech 7]: Jamal is now one of the Team Medics. He was born in a black working class neighborhood in Detroit in 2042. When Jamal was 15, his younger brother was killed by a cop for “playing with a toy gun while black.” This had a profound—though not immediately obvious—impact on Jamal. When he graduated from high school two years later at age 17, he joined the Navy. He entered the Navy SEALS where most of his work remains classified. It was Suzy that brought him into the company and the two are close. While his family is Moslem and his father was devout. His mother is more relaxed about prayer observances. So, Jamal did not learn Arabic initially, but has used his military educational opportunities to correct that. He is fluent now. As he grew older, he became more respectful of his religion. He is currently attending medical school in Night City.
Mitzi Blaize {formally Hiroko Takamori} [Fixer 3 (Covert Operative 2 / Prowler 4)]: She is a local girl from a Night City combat zone who joined an up and coming Edgerunner Team with a powerful patron a couple of years back. They pulled off a few big jobs before some on her Team (not her) crossed a local Mafia Capo, Marco Baronti, who murdered their patron, many of her friends and scattered the others to the wind. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped her exact bloody revenge not only on Marco Baronti, but on the people who framed her father for a crime he didn’t commit, which drove this man to become a ‘family destroyer’.
Rue Perlo {formally Dr. Cecia Herrera} [Medtech 8]: She is a former Washington State National Guard medic from Seattle. Her sister was a hanger on at her hometown chapter of the Chrome Berets and served as their medic. This is where Rue became a friend of 8 Ball’s. When this solo put out the call for help for the Night City chapter, she answered this call and was hired by Marty full time. Her dream has to get her medical degree and become a certified doctor. Getting this was Martina’s promise to Rue. On her return to Night City, she will be enrolled in Medical School and in three terms will receive the training and certification as a legal Doctor of Medicine.
Samantha Burke [Netrunner]: This beautiful young woman is old friend of Mitzi and some on her old time currently enrolled in the Masters of Computer Science Program at Night City University.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [NET Tech]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and hid her in Federal Witness Protection. With Baronti’s death she (and others) came out of hiding, and sued the mobster’s estate. She received a three story apartment house and enough money to go to NCU.
Xavier Aguinaldo (Fawkes) [Combat Sneak 6]: The young man was born into a large Snake Nation Nomad Family. While working on a Petrochem CHOO2 a greedy corporate flagrantly violated the family’s employment contract and bought off local authorities. His parents led a work action which was ruthlessly crushed after this legal action was declared an ‘insurrection’. His parents were arrested and his family scattered (and he believed killed). Wandering alone, he was eventually able to enlist in the United States Army where he served for twelve years eventually making the Special Forces. Cutbacks forced his retirement where he drifted to Night City and the Forlorn Hope. There he contacted his old friend and mentor, Robert Cronenberg (Kronos), who got him a job working with Mitzi’s new Team.
The NPCs
Diesel [Ganger]: A Trash Chipper leader, who negotiates with 8-Ball.
Mouse (Michael Floyd) [Gang Rank 3, Jury Rig 5]: This young man is the shy, introverted kid from the neighborhood who drifted into the Chrome Berets due to his technical skills. His brother Karl, who was killed during the Security Associates assault, was a member and convinced the gang to accept him due to his technical talents. This young man has flowered in the gang.
Udo Harris [Techie]: This man is married to Rashida (Hemings) Harris, Jamal Hemings sister. He lives in Detroit and works with the city’s water and sewer department.
The Action
Monday, September 26, 2072:
From what is probably the 20th floor, a booster's voice rings out, "Whoa! Upstairs guys! Stop shooting! Parley, for god's sake! What the fuck do you want?"
8-Ball shouts from above, “Yo there, Trash Chippers! We want this fuckin' tower. Your dead bodies in it being optional. You dig it?"
The solo goes on to tell them the Team will give them a reasonable amount of time for them to move out along with their civilians and hangers-on, otherwise, “We will go full-time medieval on the ass of anyone who stays behind. When we see a gun, we gun you down"
The Trash Chippers do respond, "We have families and sick people in this building. Moving so quickly will kill some and will take hours. And what about the hydroponics? Without being tended all the crops will die and the hunger situation here will just get worse. If you want the building, you can have it, but you need to take responsibility for all the civilians yourself! Are you going to protect them?"
Suzy will pipe in on the private channel. “Tell them to pull below the 15th floor. That will give us plenty of an 'air gap' to defend. We can discuss the complete building hand over after dawn.”
8-Ball shouts down the stairs to the Trash Chipper, “Fine, pull back to the 15th floor and below - people may stay as they were. Not gonna bother them. Or you, for that matter, as long as you don't stick yer noggins' above that level. But keep in mind - a hundred-year-old granny with a baby carriage show up where they don't belong, they're off to happy hunting grounds in a nanosecond. Make sure they know that.”
The Trash Chippers agree to these terms put forward. They and all the civilians will move to the 15th floor or lower. They immediately pull back to the 17th floor and that is done by 2:25 am. They pull off the 17th floor by 2:40 am. By 2:50am, the 16th floor is empty and they will come no farther up than the landing on the 15th Floor. No one shall occupy the landing between the 15th and 16th Floor. At sunrise, negotiations will commence again to arrange the handover of the rest of the building.
At 2:20 am, 8-Ball and Hollow will be in the stairwell making sure the Trash Chippers are retreating according to schedule. This the gang does and at 2:50am. 8-Ball and Hollow then set up on the landing of the 16th Floor, which is as far as the agreement allows them to advance. They will do a quick (but thorough check of the floors as they go to make sure all the Trash Chippers have retreated, and they have. Angel will come downstairs and drop bags and other packing materials in the various laboratories to load up the equipment and gear Raven MicroCyb wants. This will take him 10 minutes. Rue and Fawkes will remain on the 22 Floor (Nano-lab). Rue will begin to pack it up and Fawkes is told to guard the door. At this point Fawkes passes out as he is at Mortal 3 and the adrenaline rush from the attack of the "Frankenborg" is over. There is no way he remains conscious. The man has NO cyberware that keeps him up and active at this wound level. Jamal will occupy the Cyberlimb Lab (Floor 19) and begin moving the cyberlimbs there to the #2 elevator door. Cossack follows the Trash Chippers' retreat and head into the Fashionware Lab (Level 18) to search it when the Trash Chippers clear it. Suzy continues to work on the Computer Lab. Samantha is keeping track of Trash Chippers movements and so far, so good. She is also sending a small drone down to the 15th Floor to listen in at a ventilation duct in case the Trash Chippers are going to do some planning.
By 2:25 am, it is clear that there is nothing in the Fashionware Laboratory as the Trash Chippers have turned it into a barracks. Anything of value is gone. Cossack then heads up to Floor 19 to help Jamal pack up the Cyberlimb Laboratory as it has lots of items on the corporation's list. The two should have everything there ready to go up the elevator by 2:55 am.
At 2:30 am, Angel begins setting the first set of explosives on the stairwells. When it goes off it will collapse the stairs from the landing between the 16th and the 17th Floor up to the stairs down from the 18th Floor. He will be finished setting it by 2:50 am. Angel is the only character on site with the skills to do this safely.
Between 2:31 to 2:49 am, everything is going well and Samantha is keeping an eye on the Trash Chippers. After 2:45 am it is clear that the Trash Chippers are planning some kind of counterattack. A number of heavily cybered people with large caliber weapons have arrived near the 15th Floor. Also, much metal gear is in evidence and the gang has pulled some scary looking weapons from some kind of armory (and, no, Samantha doesn't know what kind of weapons they are, just 'big and nasty-looking'.
At 2:50 am, Suzy sends Angel, who has just finished setting the explosives in the stairwell, to the Implant Lab to search it for any equipment and gear that you might need to pull out. Samantha comes on the comm and tells the Team she has counted almost three dozen gangers armed and ready. They aren't attacking yet, but she feels they have maybe 5 to 10 minutes before that might happen. It is clear that Raven MicroCyb's intelligence on the matter of the size of this gang is woefully inadequate!
By now, 8-Ball and Hollow are on the landing outside of the 16th Floor keeping an eye on the stairs below. They are aware of where the detonator is to collapse the stairs. Cossack and Jamal are finishing stacking all the cyberware by the elevator door on Level 19 (Cyberlimb Lab). Angel is just entering the Implant Lab to search it for gear on our list. Rue is finishing up with her packing up of the Nano Lab on Level 22. Fawkes is out cold on the floor there. Suzy has at least another 15 minutes to finish stripping out what she needs to get from the Computer Lab. Samantha has positioned a small drone at a ventilation screen on the 15th Floor and is listening to the Trash Chippers plan their next assault. That NET Runner then asks, “Does anyone know what the word: ‘testudo’ means?”
No one seems to know (at least the characters don’t) so Samantha looks it up. She says, “Testudo is Latin for tortoise, it’s a Roman military formation. Oh, this might explain the Raven MicroCyberntics ballistic shields the gangers are handing out.”
Cossack wants to blow the stirs immediately, but Suzy overrules him. They should wait until the Trash Chippers are on the stairwell and inside the trap. She tells 8-Ball and Hollow to ‘shoot and scoot’ when the ‘testudo’ comes into sight and keep the gangers heads under the shields until they notice the trap or are in the optimum blast area. 8-Ball, who has the detonator, goes with this and waits.
At 2:55 am, the Trash Chippers move out in with a duel testudo formation with six men each, one behind the other. 8-Ball & Hollow fire off 5 rifle rounds each as they 'shoot and scoot'. This keeps the enemy shield formation tight. The Trash Chippers move up the stairwell. When a gang member finally notices the explosive charges it's way too late. They are in the optimum kill zone. Samantha gives the word and 8-Ball triggers the detonator. The entire building rocks as the part of the stairwell collapses under, around and above the testudo formation. Angel’s placement of the explosives is perfect. After all, he used the architect’s plans to pre-build them. The screams of the dying Trash Chippers start to rise above the end of the collapsing stairs. Obviously some are still alive, so 8-Ball and Hollow drop a few grenades down on the bloody, dust filled rubble. Again, voices from below shout up and beg the Team to stop the rain of grenades from above.
8-Ball yells back, “Yeah? You wanna ceasefire? Didn't you just have one, eh, Shit Eaters? But of course, you simply had to fuck it up!"
A new voice rises from below, “Shit Eater? You want to come down here and say that to my face? Is this the one you talked to?”
With that a Trash Chipper is tossed out onto the rubble. The terrified ganger looks up and says to the man who threw him into the line of fire, “Come on, Diesel, I did the best I could.”
8-Ball says, “Yeah, that sounds like him.”
“This guy has no authority,” Diesel responds. A shot rings out from below and the former negotiator’s head explodes in a mass of blood and brains.
There is a back and forth and 8-Ball tries to stretch out this negotiation but Diesel and 8-Ball finally come to an agreement on a one hour cease fire, so the Trash Chippers can pull their wounded from the rubble. 8-Ball ends by telling the man, “After that we will continue the business of killing every last one of you!”
Diesel responds shouting, “By dawn, I will be drinking my beer out of your skull!”
Obvious civilians now enter the ruined stairwell below and start to clear the rubble and pull out the trapped Trash Chippers. The Team continues to pack up the Raven Micro Cybernetics gear that they have secured. Jamal and Cossack move the recovered cyberlimbs into the management elevator on the floor and move it up to the 28th Floor to be transferred to the Executive elevator to get it to the 32nd Floor. Suzy finishes packing up the parts of the computer they were sent to get. She moves down to Nano Lab where Fawkes is passed out. The NET Runner finds his chipware socket, picks the ChipLok on it and installs her Adrenaline / Endorphin Surge chip in him. Rue hits the ex-Special Forces operator with a stim to wake the man up. Suzy apologizes for ‘violating’ his chipware socket but tells him, “We need you up and able to help us move the gear to the roof.”
Fawkes is told to wait in the Nano Lab and guard the racks of nano ware that Rue has piled in front of the elevator. When Fawkes wakes up, his Times Square reboots. In it he sees an overlay of the floor he is on. He recognizes this as Top Secret US Special Forces technology, only slightly better. No one outside Tier 1 units is supposed to have this. Rue and Suzy head downstairs and gather more of the equipment and cyberware they have come for. Over the next hour of the ceasefire the Team uses that elevator to move everything to the 28th Floor. Jamal remains on the 28th Floor to move the ever growing pile of booty to the executive elevator and up to the 32nd Floor. When the hour is almost over, Diesel yells up the stairwell, “Hey, you guys are using the elevators!”
The gang leader isn’t so upset about that as the fact the Team has shut down elevator shaft #1, which he points out is a violation of the cease fire agreement that neither side will impede the normal operation of the building. The Trash Chippers need to get their wounded down to the lower floors. The gang wants the elevator turned back on. 8-Ball responds, “Big talk form a man who wants to drink beer from my skull!”
The two begin to negotiate again and agree the Team will turn on that elevator for a one hour extension of the ceasefire. For the most part, the Trash Chippers use the elevator to just move wounded, but they do sneak some weapons and minor equipment up. Just before the expiration of the cease fire, the Team has succeeded in moving all of the items they have found on Raven Micro Cybernetics up to the 28th Floor. They have also wrapped up the corpse of the ‘Frankenborg’ to deliver to Raven. Some join Jamal in the process of moving this booty up to the 32nd Floor. Jamal then begins moving stuff from this top floor out on to the roof. Angel gets to work planting more charges in the stairwell between the 30th and 31st Floors to cut off 32nd and roof from attack. He will join Jamal moving things to the roof when he is done setting the bombs. Suzy calculates that everything will be on the roof by around 5:30am. She also has set explosives on the top of elevator shaft #2 in case they have to drop the cars on the Trash Chippers.
8-Ball is still on the 18th Floor with Hollow. Cossack comes down to support these two and takes up a position the Computer room on the 22nd Floor. Inside, the Computer Lab on the floor above, Suzy has left a small laptop to control the elevators and cameras. The Team has set up overwatch with cameras (on a hard line) in the elevator shafts. Angel has already set cameras on the roof looking down to keep the exteriors south and west sides under observation. Samantha’s bodyguards are watching the north and east exteriors from the warehouse.
At the end of the cease fire period, smoke starts filling up elevator shaft #2 where only one works. The sole operation car is in that shaft now locked on the 28th Floor. Cossack opens the elevator door on the 22nd Floor which still has the car they control. He looks down and doesn’t see anything but darkness and smoke, even with thermographic vision. This smoke is also fogging the cameras they set up earlier. The Ukrainian fires a bunch of rounds down into the smoke. He sees some light around the edge of the shaft and hears Trash Chippers entering a floor below him. Cossack realizes the enemy is entering above where 8-Ball and Hollow are. He warns the pair they are about to be cut off. 8-Ball calls to Samantha who tells them they are probably on the 20th and 21st floor. 8-Ball and Hollow quickly retreat upstairs. Cossack drops a grenade down the shaft. It lands on a jury rigged set of ballistic shields that the Trash Chippers are using to come up the elevator shaft unnoticed. Bullets start coming up the shaft, so Cossack pulls back and closes the door. Within a minute, the Trash Chippers are using a torch on 22nd floor elevator door. The three Team members are contemplating putting one of their C-6 bombs on the door when, Samantha comes on the comms to tell them that about 14 Trash Chippers are now pouring onto the 23rd Floor including 2 full borgs! The enemy is now behind them.
The three run upstairs to get above the 23rd floor. 8-Ball and Hollow get past the 23rd Floor, but Cossack hasn’t when a bomb goes off in the Computer Lab. The entire building is plunged into darkness. This slows the Team’s retreat, but also the Trash Chippers. Hollow moves onto the 24th Floor where he opens the door to the shaft to the elevator the gang is using and drops his pre-made 1 kilograms C-6 demo charge. This blows the gang’s jury rigged ballistic shield arrangement to pieces.
[On the 23rd floor, Suzy had rigged the small laptop she left to keep the cameras and power on with her 1 kilogram demo charge. Any attempt to move or access the computer would set it off. The Trash Chippers tried and now have even a few more casualties to deal with.]
This stops the gang’s advance, but probably just temporarily. Cossack cover the stairs in their slow retreat up to the 28th Floor. Hollow moves quickly and does a fast visual search of Levels 25 thru 27. He grabs a Militech Ronin, a Bushmaster SMG, a frag grenade, a Kalashnikov A-80 and an RPG-A with a couple of spare rounds. All of these are smart-linked and NOT on the list of equipment they have to return. 8-Ball enters each floor and uses his snake camera to make sure the gang isn’t coming up the elevator shafts again. During the Team’s retreat, Cossack takes a dead Trash Chipper and places a grenade under his body in the stairwell without it’s pin.
By now the rest of the Team has moved everything off the 28th Floor to the 32nd Floor. In fact, much of the gear is now on the roof. The Team decides to make a small stand in the executive dining and gym area before retreating above the next stairwell where the last large demolition charges are set. Rue sets up on the 32nd Floor with her underbarrel grenade launcher pointed down the executive elevator shaft (#3). There are no enemies in it yet, but that is only a matter of time. Jamal, 8-Ball, Cossack, Hollow and Suzy set up on the 28th Floor. Hollow takes 8-Ball’s snake camera and watches for any advance up the #2 elevator shaft. No one is there so Suzy slips into that shaft and waits in ambush. Jamal, Cossack and 8-Ball. move some furniture out on to the landing between the 27th and 28th Floor and prepare to ‘shoot and scoot’. At this point there is 10 minutes before enough of the ‘loot’ wanted by the Team’s employer is on the roof and they can safely call for extraction. It will take an additional 20 minutes after that before the Rave Micro Cybernetics’ osprey arrives.
Soon, the enemy can be heard moving up the stairs. Cossack tosses a smoke grenade down the stairwell, but the sound of people on the stairs grows louder, so he follows that with a flash-bang. Out of the smoke below comes a frag grenade. Thanks to the Team’s armor, the three Team members take only 1 point of impact damage. Both 8-Ball and Cossack drop fragmentation grenades on the approaching enemy in return.
[GM Note: Unknown to the Team the grenades explode on the advancing wall of ballistic shields. While this doesn’t kill any of the Trash Chippers, it does disrupt their advance and they retreat slightly to reorganize. This buys the Team another 5 minutes.]
Finally, the Trash Chippers attack again. This time the elevator door opens on the 26th Floor and gangers enter the shaft to climb up. In the stairwell, the sounds of multiple foot falls can be heard coming up. Hollow kills one of the elevator climbers with a head shot that penetrate his metal gear’s helmet. A Trash Chipper gets a shot at Hollow, but his armor reduces it to just another point of impact. Suzy fires last and kills another. The two Team members win initiative and kill the remaining two. At the end of the round four more Trash Chippers enter the shaft, but can’t see either Hollow or Suzy, who gun most of them down at the beginning of the next round.
The main stairwell is now starting to fill with smoke again as the assault starts from below. 8-Ball and Jamal kill two of the enemy who are closing and screaming for the Team’s death. A third succeeds in getting into point blank range of Cossack who fires first and hits the Trash Chipper with eight maximum damage hits! This kills the ganger despite his metal gear, which isn’t in the best of shape anyway. Still, they keep on coming. A Trash Chipper with full body plating reaches Cossack and kicks him with his Cyberleg. The Ukrainian botches his dodge (and takes a single point of damage from that)! The kick itself does only a single point of impact. However, down below a booster enters the stairwell below with an RPG-A. By now the stairwell is full of Trash Chippers and some have entered the 27th Floor below them. The first wave is now in close combat, but the Team’s fire forces them back down the stairs temporarily. The respite is brief as the gangers fires an RPG-A HE round that engulfs all three Team members.
[GM Note: The Trash Chippers have altered the warhead’s arming sequence so it detonates.]
The blast severely wounds all three. Jamal passes out. 8-Ball grab’s the Navy SEAL’s unconscious body and both he and Cossack fall back onto the 28th Floor.
Back at elevator shaft #2, Hollow fires on a Trash Chipper climbing up the shaft. He kills his man and steps back to reload. Suzy drops a grenade and steps out of the shaft while telling Samantha, “Close the elevator door.”
With the stairwell about to be overrun and the Trash Chippers on the floor just below, 8-Ball calls for a retreat. The five Team members abandon the 28th Floor and go back up the stairs. The Trash Chippers swarm on to the 28th Floor and sweep it clean. Soon, they are coming up the stairs to close again on the Team. This time they are careful and see that the stairs are rigged. Samantha detonates it before it can be disarmed. Only one Trash Chipper is killed by falling masonry, but now easy access to the floors above cut off. The Trash Chippers can get to the 29th Floor, but no higher without climbing through the rubble or up the remaining executive elevator shaft (#3) under fire from the Team. The Trash Chippers halt their advance to regroup and prepare.
This leaves Rue watching the elevator shaft (#3) with Suzy and Hollow defending the large gap in the staircase. Everyone else is finishing moving the gear to the roof. Samantha gets on the radio and informs the Team that their Raven ex-fil is now inbound with an ETA of 20 minutes. From below there is the sound of some explosions as the Trash Chippers discover a couple of surprises left by Suzy and the grenade under the dead ganger left by Cossack. Some minutes pass and Suzy calls from someone to replace her in stairwell. 8-Ball comes down and Suzy heads to the roof. Once there she takes some binoculars and scan the area in the ground. She seems to be using her index finger to write things in the air that no one can see.
Finally, two aircraft appear in the distance heading for the Plymouth Office Tower. One is an osprey and the other is an AV-4. The AV comes in first. Fawkes and Jamal watch as Suzy uses a Raven comm channel to call in ground strikes against some of the Trash Chippers who have set up to shoot at the incoming aircraft. The gang has figured out that this was probably the Team’s endgame. Fawkes is listening and this ‘college student’ is using US military lingo while calling in the fire. Also, he sees that his Times Square has all the gang positions marked out on the ground. The auto-gun outside the front door is hit first and destroyed which is the real threat to the incoming craft. The remaining guns on the roof have already been dismounted and packed up by Angel, since they were on the recovery list. The osprey lands on the roof and a team from Raven hops out to help the Team load up the collected equipment. Angel disassembles the microwave link to their warehouse HQ where Samantha comes off line while she and her two bodyguards load the remaining Team gear into a van.
Gunfire from the ground has ceased by now as the AV-4 has suppressed that. The Trash Chippers mass for a last attack on the 29th floor. The AV swings into position opposite that floor and uses its twin mini-guns to hose the gang. This breaks the Trash Chippers’ spirit and ends any further attempt to interfere with the Team’s ex-fil. The Team boards the now filled up osprey and lifts off into the pre-dawn light.
While this is all going on Udo Harris and his men pack up Samantha and her gear in their van and head to the airport rendezvous. Once at the airport, Fawkes is looked after and all the recovered gear is brought out for the Raven Micro Cybernetics technicians to examine. When they get a look at the ‘Frankenborg’, a flash of recognition crosses the corporate Team leader face. He keeps to himself that this “man” was a former Raven Micro Cybernetics engineer. If his identity as the mastermind behind the horrors inflicted on this neighborhood ever came out, the corporation might be in for more than just the displeasure of the city for skipping out and bringing their tax base with them. The inventory of recovered tech is more than that corporation had hoped for. The Team provided video evidence of the battle, which shows that civilian casualties during this were almost non-existent. Only one woman, a girlfriend of a Trash Chipper leader, was killed. Payment in full was immediately authorized and a promise of further employment is given. This begins a warm relationship between the Team and Raven Micro Cybernetics.
In a few hours the Team is jetting their way back to Night City. Fawkes goes immediately to the South Beach Hospital and the remaining members of the Team take a well-deserved rest.
***
Tuesday, September 27, 2072
8-Ball and Cossack continue to get work done on the Chrome Berets’ headquarters. Later that afternoon, the Team, now with Samantha) along with Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons at Jake’s dojo in the South Beach Mall which is scheduled to open on Friday, September 30th.
***
Wednesday, September 28, 2072:
8-Ball has Mandarin Lesson today and work continues on the Chrome Berets Headquarters. Fawkes recovers in the hospital and ponders the speed and combat skills of the cute, supposedly nerd student, Suzy.
***
Thursday, September 29, 2072:
The Team, Samantha, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons again and work nears completion on the Chrome Berets’ place. Angel is very busy repairing all the Team’s gear from Detroit. Others consider what kind of cyberware and gear they will request from Raven Micro Cybernetics as part of their reward.
***
Friday, September 30, 2072:
Today is the Grand Opening of South Beach Mall! It is a large celebration with the mayor himself in attendance. All but Suzy shows up. Mouse tells the Team that she has come down with some kind of bug and is also skipping school. The media is there, of course, and Mitzi is approached by Jennifer Jones (Bambi), the WNS reporter they met over a year and a half ago on the Team’s trip with Martina Lupescu / Vargas to New York. Her interest continues to be, who owns Reynolds Realty, one of the companies behind much of resurgence of South Beach. She presses the Team, but they actually have no idea.
Another surprise is that the main restaurant in this mall is owned by the late Wu Deng’s daughter. Somehow the Tong has gained a foothold in South Beach. This doesn’t bother the Team as they have a good relationship with both her and the Tong in general.
Next: Episode 32 – Devil’s Night
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2 hours ago, Cybernetic Jesus said:
True; but most people fight the next war using the last war's tactics.
This is very true, much like most of the European powers in WW I, the French in WW II and it seems like the Russians are doing in the Ukraine.
BTW, I am working up the next arc in my current campaign (Return to Night City 2071) and your M45 Cushing Tank above looks like something I could use in one of my possible segments I am working on. I may use it, if that's all right with you.
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Well, its been a while since I posted any write-ups of the stories of our Cyberpunk game. These Episode stories got rather time consuming as I would report every minutia of what was occurring. Those who might have followed the Proposal for a Virtual Cyberpunk Game thread may have been able to follow a bit of the story, but that thread was more for the exchange of ideas for our group. We have been playing right along weaving our story concerning the Cyberpunk future that myself and my players have been weaving. We have just finished Episode 59 which is the beginning of our next campaign arc that will deal with the Team stepping onto a larger stage as Whyte Hat (the name of the company) has grown to a multi-state organization and the Mitzi, the fixer has become a political power in the Outback of Nevada while maintaining her power base in Night City. I am going to attempt to continue bringing the story of the players' adventures for anyone who cares to read about them. This time I will be brief and concentrate on just the important details of each session. Let's see how this goes.
The Team has succeeded in taming the Nevada Outback, at least for a while. Trouble is brewing in Night City and their responsibilities have grown. Mega Corps have begun to seriously notice this upstart group. The media is beginning to understand that this team is unlike others who have risen quickly, then flamed out. Life is about to change for them, so away we go.
Episode 59 – An Old Friend Returns
A major network video series comes to shoot an episode in Elko County and the Team foils a plot. The Team is presented with an opportunity to change the course of Whyte Hat and get revenge on one that got away.
Background
This Team was originally put together by Martina Lupescu / Vargas, who members thought she was a rich Romanian ex-pat and artist. 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 that she found out had murdered her father. Marty got her revenge, but she lost 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 this 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) [Solo 9]: 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. They are now married. 8-Ball sports a Mohawk in the fashion of many U.S. paratroopers from the Second World War.
Angel Torres (Techie 6): This young man from one of the L.A. combat zones hooked up with the Team through his sister’s (sometime) boyfriend, who is a friend of Mitzi’s. This (initially morose and misanthropic) young man’s technical genius was recognized by Suzy and Samantha Burke, who also have a rising tech company, B&B Technologies. These two young women have treated him with unexpected kindness and acceptance while nurturing his skills. For his work, they have gifted him with as ownership stake in their company.
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.
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 Lupescu, 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. Jake Kitagawa [Solo 8]: A 25 year old “Hafu” (half Japanese, half Anglo) solo who was born in Night City but moved back to Japan at one year of age. He only spent a few years there and, after the death of his Japanese father, moved back to the United States with his mother. He is an old friend of Mitzi and belonged to that same team that was scattered by Marco Baronti. Jake is also the nephew of Honzo Kitagawa, a high level Arasaka official and one of the creators of Arasaka Te and master of multiple martial arts. He now runs an official Arasaka dojo in the South Beach neighborhood of Night City,
Jamal Hemings [Medtech 9]: Jamal is now one of the Team Medics. He was born in a black working class neighborhood in Detroit in 2042. When Jamal was 15, his younger brother was killed by a cop for “playing with a toy gun while black.” This had a profound—though not immediately obvious—impact on Jamal. When he graduated from high school two years later at age 17, he joined the Navy. He entered the Navy SEALS where most of his work remains classified. It was Suzy that brought him into the company and the two are close. While his family is Moslem and his father was devout. His mother is more relaxed about prayer observances. So, Jamal did not learn Arabic initially, but has used his military educational opportunities to correct that. He is fluent now. As he grew older, he became more respectful of his religion.
Mia Byrnes Miller [Artist / Solo 2]: The young woman is a graduate of Night City University’s Fine Arts School. She found 8-Ball attractive and interesting initially because he had a Mohawk haircut in the style her soldier father wore. The girl idolized her dad and was crushed when he was killed in the South Am Wars by Cartel Forces. 8-Ball shielded her during the gunfight at an Art Gallery and while she would normally have nothing to do with a ganger, his actions convinced Mia to give him a chance. Their relationship has blossomed and the two are now married.
Mitzi Blaize [Fixer 8 (Covert Operative 2 / Prowler 4)]: She was a local girl from a Night City combat zone who joined an up and coming Edgerunner Team with a powerful patron a couple of years back. They pulled off a few big jobs before some on her Team (not her) crossed a local Mafia Capo, Marco Baronti, who murdered their patron, many of her friends and scattered the others to the wind. The late Martina Lupescu / Vargas helped her exact bloody revenge not only on Marco Baronti, but on the people who framed her father for a crime he didn’t commit, which drove this man to become a ‘family destroyer’. She is currently the leader of Whyte Hat, an up and coming security and paramilitary company that has recently destroyed just about every bandit group in the northeast corner of Nevada known as the Outback. This operation was funded by several large transport corporations (and the C.I.A.) to open Interstate 80 and US 50 in their mission to reestablish safe transport routes across the country. The government of the Free State of Nevada supported this at first. Now they realize they have created a power that they can’t control. She has now acquired the moniker of “Queen of the Outback”.
Susan ‘Suzy’ Barnes [Solo 4 (Spy 5 / Interface 3)]: This is another member of Mitzi’s old team. She is a former corp kid whose family was destroyed, and she 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 and supposedly hid her in Federal Witness Protection while they built their case against Baronti. In fact, she was recruited by the C.I.A. and sent to South America to help the Agency in their secret war against the South American Alliance. Her activities are classified as Top Secret and all records are sealed. On her return to Night City, she finished her education at Night City University in Computer Science. At graduation she was arrested for a murder that she committed years ago and has just been released after serving 2 ½ years for manslaughter in a Federal Super Max due to her extensive knowledge of government secrets. On her release, she was declared legally insane and was forced to spend another 6 months in a mental hospital. Her former fiancé left her a substantial fortune which has grown considerable and the young woman is now very wealthy.
The NPCs
Captain Paul Wilkins (Cop 7): This man is the commander of the Elko County Sheriff’s Department substation in Wells, Nevada. He is a supporter of Whyte Hat’s activities in Nevada and a friend of Mitzi and the Team..
The Action
Friday, June 26, 2076:
It has been a year since Whyte Hat (with the secret support of Petrochem) utterly destroyed the Desert Devils, a large Raffin Shiv clan that had been terrorizing eastern Nevada for years. During the past year, Whyte Hat’s contract has been extended to include U.S. Route 50 (the loneliest highway in America) and protecting the rebuilding of the northern railroad route that will extend from Salt Lake City to the Winnemucca, NV rail head. As much as many Nevada officials would now like to get Whyte Hat out of their state, Mitzi and her group are extremely popular in the Outback. Also, Whyte Hat has about 800 extremely well-armed and trained troops along with several loyal citizen militias in various towns in the area. Under 8-Ball’s leadership these local forces and Whyte Hat have trained extensively to operate together. This along with that company’s artillery, air power and support from elements of the Federal government makes removing them a pricey operation. There is no financial upside for the state government to attempt this, so they tolerate Whyte Hat’s presence as this costs them nothing.
With “Pax Mitzi” in the Outback, trade, business and industry (all locally owned) has flourished. Relative safety in the Outback has become the rule, not the exception. This has attracted the attention of the media. Since the U.S. Marshal’s service is involved in the recent actions in the Outback, the popular video series, U.S. Marshals – Night City (a spin-off of the popular U.S. Marshals franchise) has decided to film their season finale on location in Elko County. Mitzi, 8-Ball and Cossack head to the Wells Saloon to meet with one of the show’s producers and some local officials to provide security for the location shoots in the area.
As the three walk up to the saloon’s door, they hear a disturbance inside. At this point a local farm hand comes flying through a (now breaking) window and lands unconscious on the sidewalk. Cossack moves to check the man. 8-Ball heads inside with Mitzi following behind. The solo is immediately confronted by two of the brawlers. His command to cease fighting is greeted by a swinging fist, which the solo easily dodges. Most of the patrons are sitting back and enjoying the show. To 8-Ball’s right, two more locals are kicking a downed combatant. Another local is trading blows with different man, and two other farm hands are fighting with a red haired young woman by the now broken window. 8-Ball tries a martial arts knockout, but fails. Cossack sees the man on the sidewalk is alive but unconscious, so he heads inside. There are no weapons in evidence. The Team recognizes this a typical Friday Night “slobber knocker” that occurs every now and then.
8-Ball continues his knock out attempts as Cossack joins the fray to cut off another farm hand who is moving to attack 8-Ball. Across the room, the red headed girl grapples and throws one of her opponents to the floor knocking him unconscious. Mitzi joins the fray and also uses her Arasaka Te to knock out her opponent. 8-Ball also succeeds in dropping his opponent as Captain Paul Wilkins enters from the saloon’s back dance floor and orders the brawlers to stop. Of course, they don’t, so he draws his weapon and fires a shot into the ceiling. This brings the fight to a halt. The Sheriff captain tosses 8-Ball his handcuffs and tells him to cuff his former opponent, which he does. The bar crowd expresses their disappointment that the sheriff has stopped the entertainment in the front room. The Team looks again at the young woman, who has dropped two of the local farm hands and realize that this is Suzy Barnes, freshly released from her stay in a mental hospital. They didn’t recognize her sooner as she is wearing a wig and they all had people swinging at them.
Suzy sees her old friends and squeals with delight before rushing over to greet them. 8-Ball suggests to Captain Wilkins that since no one is seriously hurt, perhaps only a small fine would be appropriate. However, he gives one of the brawlers a lecture (and promise) that if he ever hears that this man uses his rippers again in a local bar, he will be doing a little time in jail anf perhaps have his rippers ripped out of his hand. They quickly get to the bottom of what started the fight. One of the local cowboys went up to Suzy and started to touch her, in ways she didn’t appreciate. Their old friend’s two bodyguards intervened and the fight erupted. Although outnumbered by the local farm hands, the bodyguards held their own and Suzy, who is a skilled and accomplished fighter, joyfully jumped right in. Yes, apparently the girl still gets all excited by violence.
Soon they all head into the back room where the band is getting ready with their next set. Back there several local officials were sitting with one of the vid show’s producers discussing the upcoming shoot. The band starts to play and Suzy asks 8-Ball to dance with her. The two tear up the dance floor under the watchful eyes of her two bodyguards. The producer explains that they will be shooting the next couple of days at the El Rancho Hotel, Bar & Casino next door with a final day of shooting on Wednesday, July 1st at the Carlin Tunnel (outside Carlin, NV). The local officials want Whyte Hat to help with security, especially with the Carlin Tunnel sequences since those scene includes the tunnel being blown up by this season’s unknown “supervillain” who has been leading the stars of U.S. Marshals – Night City through various plots this season. It turns out that Suzy has been hired to portray this supervillain for the final episode of the season. It seems their friend has embarked on a new career. She is all smiles and overjoyed to see all of her old friends. Unfortunately, the network has insisted that she have their bodyguards for the run of this shoot. The producer doesn’t want her identity revealed before the airdate of the show’s season in the last week of August.
Suzy is hurried off to her hotel room before any media arrives, but not before she gets passes for Mia and Celestin to attend the shooting which will occur in the El Rancho. The young woman also invites her old friends to her new house on Thursday, July 2nd after the show wraps. This house was one of the two buildings just built on the grounds of ‘Rancho Mitzi’ where the Ranger Platoon is based. The Team learns that the company that this ranch is leased from is owned by Suzy!
***
Saturday, June 27 to Tuesday, June 30, 2076:
The Team, along with Celestin and Mia, get to watch much of the shoot and see Suzy perform. Her character’s name is “Suki”, which is her old stripper name. The young woman isn’t pleased about this, but she has no say in the matter. In one of the scenes, she seduces the series lead character with a provocative and enticing dance. Now, they all know she can dance, but none, except Mitzi, has ever seen her routine. Her dance leaves almost every member of the production team with a ‘chubby’. They all get to see her become an entirely different person as she brings ‘Suki’ to life. Those in the know can see why the C.I.A. recruited her.
***
Wednesday, July 1, 2076:
Most of this day’s shoot deal with the series ‘heroes’ rushing to find the charges that will destroy the tunnel and cripple transportation on Interstate 80. Suzy’s only part is drugging the lead just before he tries to arrest her. She makes her escape by hanging on the side of a helicopter and she waves good-bye to the fictional Marshals hinting at her return (next season).
The Team’s job on the set is to act as extra security. 8-Ball insists on checking the (fake) ‘explosive charges’ that are set in the tunnel. Both Mitzi and Angel check them out since they are both demolition experts. All seems right to Angel, but Mitzi notices that these aren’t fake charges, but are quite real. Th two immediately disconnect the charges from the detonation wires. 8-Ball leads the shoot’s security detail to find the production crew member who set the supposedly fake explosives, but he has already fled. 8-Ball has a BOLO issued by for the man.
Thanks to the Team a disaster is avoided. This earns them the continued gratitude of the local government and the video production company.
***
Thursday, July 2, 2076:
Later in the afternoon, 8-Ball, Mitzi, Angel, Jamal and Cossack head to the small house that has been built, apparently for Suzy, on the grounds of Rancho Mitzi. A servant answers the door and takes the five through the building to an outside pool area. There they find that Jake Kitagawa (from Night City), Celestin and Mia are already there. Celestin is playing her Kontra as both she and Suzy are singing a Romanian folk song. Most understand what is being sung as a large number of the Team have at least a working knowledge of Romanian. Celestin and Suzy bonded when Cossack’s girlfriend arrived in the United States over their mutual love of dance and the fact that Suzy spoke fluent (yet accented) Romanian and the rocker’s English wasn’t very strong back then.
Their host has ditched her red wig and is dressed in a tiny bikini. She bounds over to her recently arrived guests and gives everyone a hug. They all sit by the pool. Suzy doesn’t want to talk about the past three years except to express that these have been the worse three years of her life. There is a touch of fear mixed with sadness as she tells them this. This passes as she calls for drinks and listens to the rest of the Team. Jake is here for a vacation and to see Suzy. He is an old friend of both her and Mitzi as all three went to a parochial high school together. Most of the Team has been trained in Arasaka Te by Jake. What follows is an hour or so of relaxed conversation.
Finally, Suzy changes the subject. She explains that she has decided to embark on a new ‘career path’. She has asked them all here because she views them all as her ‘family’. The young woman admits she has no one in the world except them and the past few years have made her reconsidered a lot of her past life choices. This has led her to commit herself to a new, yet old, path, and she wants them to join her on it. However, this path is fraught with danger and may involve many felonies. She is tired of watching the rich and powerful get their way in a country that was founded on the principles of freedom, economic opportunity for all and democratic institutions. There was nothing she could do before, but now she has the training, money and ‘will’ to do something about it.
“I believe that most, if not all of you, have experienced this national disconnect of principles and reality in some way and might wish to help with my, well, crusade. If any wish to follow me down this rabbit hole, then come with me into the living room and I will explain. If you don’t, I will understand and not think of any less of you. Stay out here by the pool, enjoy the sun and refreshments.”
Everyone follows Suzy into the living room. There she activates the room’s electronic defenses turning the room into sort of a SCIF. The young woman becomes quiet as she reflects on how to express what she wants to say. Finally, she looks up and confesses that every horrible thing that they may have heard about her is probably true. She is a killer, thief, liar, money launderer and actually is the infamous NET Runner, the Blue Fairy. While she can’t talk about the details of her work with the C.I.A., needless to say she wasn’t a technical specialist. The Agency has officially ‘retired’ her and declared her mentally unstable.
“This may be true, but it is mostly just a cover to discredit me. My separation from the Agency came with a standard pension, which is kind of a joke since I am now worth over €600,000,000. Yet, I am sure most, if not all of you, know that no one ever really retires from the C.I.A., this just makes me more deniable. This leads me to what I want to do with the rest of my life. Mitzi and I founded Whyte Hat seven years ago. As the name implies, we wanted to form a Team that not only made us some money, but also would give those oppressed by the rich and powerful someone to fight on their behalf. Well, Whyte Hat has become much more than we anticipated. What I propose to do is establish another division, a secret division, to accomplish our original goal.”
Suzy goes on to explain that, personally, she is going to pursue a public career as an actor and performer. She has trusted people to handle her financial holdings. Because of her wealth, technical knowledge and government secrets in her brain, she needs an entourage to accompany her to defend against any extraction attempt. This will explain why everyone here will often be seen working together. She has talked with Celestin and part of this performance work will be furthering the Ukrainian’s career as a rocker; besides they have worked together before with the Cyber Revolutionaries tour. This will be serious and dangerous work, but also she also intends to have a good time. “After all, this world is dangerous and none can know when our lives will end. I could play it safe and use my fortune to protect myself to live and long life, but after all I have done, I need make amends my all my sins and believe me, they are many. Sure, I could use my fortune to just pay for others to do good deeds and I will do that too. However, my personal skill set is, shall I say, rather lethal. That will not be enough to accomplish what Mitzi and I have planned. If I have learned anything, it is that killing isn’t always the best answer. In fact, it rarely is. Each of you brings skills to the Team I think we need. Of course, there will be money involved for everyone for that is something I have. Funny, when I was younger that was mostly what I desired, but now I see it as just a tool to help me make a difference. Is this something you all would like to join Mitzi and I doing?”
What follows is a short discussion on the parameters of the new Team arrangement. 8-Ball does have current commitments in Wells as a Town Constable, Mia and Angel have upcoming university, but they are assured that this can all be worked around. When the discussion is complete, all in attendance agree to join in this new Whyte Hat project. Suzy then informs them that she already has their first mission. She reviews the progress of the government’s attempts to bring the rogue, retired Captain Roberts, formally of the Nevada Border Patrol and leader of the Wendover Source, to justice. As the Team knows, he retired to Venezuela. In response to an attempt to have him extradited, the man has given up his US citizenship, married a local woman and gotten her pregnant. While relations have improved between the U.S. and Venezuela a bit, the fugitive cop’s actions have led that South American country to refuse the extradition request.
“My only remaining duty to the Agency is as an instrument of, shall we say, not letting people like Captain Roberts ‘get away with it’. Giving up his citizenship has moved Captain Roberts from an American that gets protection from our government to a foreign criminal who has committed terroristic acts against America. When that happens, they send people like me to ‘deal’ with him,” Suzy explains. “I don’t view myself as an assassin, but rather an instrument of justice. I am not asking anyone to actually kill anyone. Even I am not going to do it, but I intend to expedite this execution of justice.”
The plan is to go to a coastal town near where ex-Captain Roberts is living for a legitimate and real fashion photo shoot where Suzy will be the model for an actual line of bathing suits. She wants Mia to be the photographer, Cossack to be her driver and others to be her entourage for the few days in country. The actual ‘job’ will be performed by an associate of hers. As to the details of this, it is better for them not to know.
Mitzi suggests the Team could just kidnap him and deliver him to Nevada authorities for another of their ‘Pay-Per-View” executions. Suzy explains that doing so will clearly be seen as a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and cause an international incident just when there is a major diplomatic effort to improve relations between the two countries. Besides does anyone really trust the Nevada Free State government not to leak their identities? It is just better to have the man just ‘disappear’.
All agree to the plan. Most everyone in attendance is aware of the death and suffering Captain Roberts caused by running the ‘Wendover Source’, so none have issues with participating. Someone asks if Lt. Gregory James and Officer Phillip Cortez, the remaining two fugitive members of the Wendover Source, will be getting the same treatment. Suzy relies, “As long as they remain U.S. citizens, people like me aren’t sent. My duty is to protect the lives of American citizens (then smiling as she turns to Cossack and Celestin) or green card holders.”
As everyone is in agreement, Suzy suggests that they all head out to the pool area again for some swimming and champagne. She has some spare bathing suits that fit the other women in attendance. 8-Ball and Jamal just strip to their underwear and the rest of the afternoon is spent having fun in the sun!
Next: Episode 60 – Venezuelan Vacation
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Sanitizing the battlefield will take a while as I noted previously, to clean up bodies, debris and exploded ordinance. Whyte Hat doesn't employ a chaplain, but their are priests and ministers in Wells that will hold services for the dead. Those believers in Whyte Hat go to local churches. The company doesn't want to offend any of the religious groups in the area by having an 'official chaplain' and give the appearance of favoring one religion over another. Whyte Hat Intelligence estimates that maybe up to 100 of the Desert Devils escaped capture or death, but they have fled and are widely scattered. The leadership has been shattered and the Desert Devils, as a group, no longer exists.
The Paneuropa Armored Car is the only major (combat) battlefield salvage that is recovered. There are a number of 'wasteland vehicles' that have been captured, but most will be sold off. You did get one usable truck tractor which will be kept for now. As to the Piper Cub (equivalent), it is being kept as a light transport, surveillance unit and pilot trainer.
Now, as to the platoon deployments, the units DO NOT rotate duties every month. As of when we ended last (June 2075), the main ground combat units are 4 platoons of infantry, 1 Ranger Platoon, 1 Quick Reaction Force Platoon, a battery of 4x 82mm mortars, a battery of 2x 155mm Artillery pieces and the A & B Teams of Special Operators. There are also many construction and support units supporting these formations and defending various Whyte Hat installations. Each of the platoons have developed differently:
1) The 1st Infantry Platoon is the oldest and most experienced. It is now a veteran unit and was the first one deployed to Elko County. The did most of the patrols that cleared Interstate 80 initially. When Whyte Hat took on the responsibility of helping defend Eureka County that was the unit sent to the Eureka County Airport and then to patrol US 50 that runs through that county.
2) The 2nd Platoon is also an experienced unit and has defended the Wells Airport and Whyte Hat Headquarters for most of its deployment. They are also all parachute trained and excel in air mobile tactics. To use them for road patrol is a waste of their talents.
3) The 3rd Platoon is a considered a regular unit. It has specialized in road protection and defense of construction teams on location. In July of 2075, they lose their main base in Carlin, NV as the Nevada State Guard reclaims their facility and takes over defense of the Carlin Tunnel and the immediate area. This frees the 3rd Platoon to move to Utah and defend the rail construction crews as they rebuild rail lines cross Utah to Nevada and Elko County. This unit is completely motorized and has 3x BTR-15s and the Patria Light Tank attached to it.
4) The 4th Platoon is the newest unit and now patrols parts of Interstate 80. They will just be considered ready for other duties when we restart next (June / July 2076).
5) The Ranger Platoon has always been a Whyte Hate Unit. True, Marshal Suárez put it together, but only with Mitzi's say so. There original mission was to be an 'asymmetrical force' to battle the local bandits and Raffin Shiv, but using unconventional tactics. They kept the artillery position on Union Mountain from being discovered for what is was and were instrumental in defeating the Desert Devils by being more familiar with their territory than the Raffin Shiv group was. Now they have been withdrawn and are based on a ranch that Whyte Hat leases near Wells itself. This is where the Rangers have moved their remuda. (For those NOT familiar with the term 'remuda', it means: a herd of saddle broken horses that have been selected for the people (troops) to ride. Since all the major local bandit gangs have been suppressed, the Whyte Hat Force Commander has deemed the simmering civil war in Idaho to the north to be the biggest threat Whyte Hat now faces. The Idaho rebel fascists are being pushed out of their strongholds. These groups have been using northern Elko County for R&R. Jackpot is a major destination for them, but Lucky Mike has banned them from wearing uniforms or carrying any major weaponry while in Jackpot. However, as per his agreement with Mitzi, Lucky Mike is scaling back many of that town's former questionable practices. Public slavery has been banned and they are working to end all 'involuntary servitude' in the town. Any raiding into Elko County also gets you banned from Jackpot. This hasn't sat well with the rebels, but there isn't much they can do about it. Still, there is much territory in the northeastern part of Elko County that isn't patrolled or claimed by Jackpot. The Force Commander has moved the Ranger Platoon to Wells and has them patrolling that area to stop any infiltration by the Idaho Fascists to establish a safe haven. During the 'down time' the 2nd Platoon has organized a parachute training program for the troops. It is a small course (8 to 10) that they can hold four (and eventually five) times a year. For the year of downtime, the Ranger Platoon will given airmobile training. At the end of the seven week session each Ranger participating will have Parachute 3. They will work with the horses to get them used to being transported by helicopter. Also during this downtime the Rangers will establish small hidden encampments in the barren northeast section of the county with supply caches. As a note, any PC who wishes to take the parachute course may do so, but the course only gets you to Level 3. There will be 8 slots open during the 'skip year'.
6) The Quick Reaction Forces change little. The Wheeled squad in their BTR-15 continue to be based in Oasis. The Hover squad and Dacian Wolf remain based primarily in Wells. The AV Squad is transferred to the Eureka Airport from the Elko Airport to help the 1st Platoon patrol US 50. Also, the Elko County Sheriffs want their hanger back now that they have an aircraft.
7) In regards to the artillery, the 75 Krupp Gun is moved from Eureka back to Wells and is semi-retired. It's function will now be primarily ceremonial. Two of the four 82mm mortars are sent to the Eureka Airport to replace the 75. The other two 82mm mortars return to Trade Town and the fortified position on the hill above the town. The two 155mm artillery pieces are sent to Wells to help defend the town and Whyte Hat headquarters.
8 ) The A-Team remains headquartered in Wells. One half of the B-Team is based at the Eureka Airport and the other half is in Night City.
9) As a note, Whyte Hat gets a few more small drones to help with the increased area that needs to be covered. They also acquire a few new BTR-15s (well, used ones, but reconditioned) for a total of 10. You also acquire a second Militech AVX-9C Viper and a third Militech PRV-500 Tiltrotor. As a note, Whyte Hat doesn't have any Twin Otters (aircraft). The Desert Devils had one, but the B-Team shot it down during the attack on Alpha. The Team has 2x Short C-23E 'Sherpa'; check here for details - http://cyberpunkadventures.com/resources/vehicles/aircraft
10) The Whyte Hat command doesn't rotate many of their platoons for several reasons. Each platoon (especially the first ones) has developed specialties. Also, Whyte Hat is a security company with a policing function. Keeping the platoons based in a single location and not moving them around in their duties has made the locals familiar with the individuals in these units. It has been important for the locals to view the Whyte Hat personnel as being 'one of them', not some occupying troops that rotate in every month or so. As Whyte Hat's duties and familiarity with this area grows, perhaps this policy can change. The first cross training that would need to occur is this: one of the regular platoons needs to be trained 'airmobile' to be able to replace the 2nd Platoon at the airport in Wells. It would be suggested that the 3rd or 4th platoon be next on the list for airborne training. In the case of the 3rd Platoon, they will have to be moved to Wells for patrol duty on Interstate 80 and the 4th Platoon assigned to railroad protection duty, but we can talk about this.
As to bringing and encouraging business in the area, Mitzi has been hard at work on that. She has been leasing out captured construction equipment and trucks to local businesses, many which were almost in collapse, and making sure they get contracts from Whyte Hat and other entities helping in the area's reconstruction. Land and housing prices in the area of Wells has skyrocketed with the increased Whyte Hat presence. As 8-Ball looks into the local economic issues, he discovers that various companies have been buying up property in the area. Many old local businesses have expanded employment and others are being created by locals. The local branch of the Bank of Nevada has been supporting these new start-ups along with a new company, Western Vistas LLC, which is a basic loan company. At some point in this skip. Most of the Team will be approached by Mitzi to inquire if they want to invest in a new enterprise to capitalize on this rise in land prices. She can't say much about it, but she expects that it should have a healthy return in a couple of years. The minimum buy in is €110,000 for a 1% share of this new investment enterprise.
As to Suzy, she isn't sure exactly where she is, but it is in Europe somewhere, she thinks. The Federal government hasn't given up control of her finances, so there is no information on that. Actually, Suzy talks mostly with Mitzi, Mia and Celestine (Kathleen too, but she is in Night City). She is doing well at the hospital and learns she will probably be released sometime in the summer of 2076.
As a note, we will next meet on SUNDAY, August 21st at 11 am (EDT), same as always, so TigerGuard can also participate in the session.
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At the Marshal's insistence all of the dead are recorded, but many are 'zips' so they are just listed as 'unknown'. A large number of wanted men are killed, but those that died in the big blast on the Desert Devils' fortress have been vaporized. Most of the leadership was killed. Only one of the six Desert Devils' War Leaders survived to be captured. He gets himself a pay-per-view execution from the state. Of the corrupt former Eureka County officials hiding in Alpha, only the former Under Sheriff escapes. He runs and runs. Once the Desert Devils broke and ran, the State of Nevada swept in to garner some of the glory for that gang's destruction. They take all the prisoners off your hands. Whyte Hat doesn't have the facilities to house them and the counties don't want to.
The clean up of the battlefield takes a couple of months. There are lots of excess small arms and a small collection of wasteland vehicles. Of the Desert Devils' air wing, the Otter tries to lift off and is shot down by the B-Team with their MANPADS. The light helicopter is promptly shot down by one of Whyte Hat's Tiltrotors when it heads for Union Mountain. The remaining three aircraft are captured. The P-47's engine isn't working so it needs repair. The two remaining Piper cub style aircraft are airworthy. Mitzi returns the P-47 fighter to the Wendover Aero Museum from where it was stolen a few years ago. One of the Piper Cubs is given to the Eureka County Sheriff's Department, and the other is retained by Whyte Hat. All of the major enemy armored vehicles were destroyed except for a Paneuropa Armored Car. That vehicle was salvaged and put into service for Whyte Hat.
There are a few changes over the year of down time. The Nevada State Guard takes over their old facility in the City of Carlin displacing the 3rd Platoon. This platoon is transferred to the new duty of guarding the rebuilding of the old Overland Route rail line through Utah and Nevada. The tracks are being relaid from east to west. These tracks will reach to just short of the Utah / Nevada state line northeast of Montello when we restart. The City of Elko has now reactivated its own police force. This frees up a number of Elko County Deputy Sheriffs for highway patrol. Just after the Desert Devils' defeat the US Marshals Service changes its relationship with Whyte Hat, by dividing up the Outback area into different districts. This doesn't go over well with J.J. Hunter especially as she now has to share authority with two other Marshals, so she resigns from the Marshal's Service and is hired immediately by Whyte Hat to head its new Corporate Police Division. She is basically doing the same job as before except getting paid a lot more money! The state government tries to use this change in the Marshals' organization to limit their authority and the politicians begin their dance of delay. Marshal T.J. Law is transferred to another division in all this kerfuffle.
During this time, 8-Ball is very busy with the establishment of Whyte Hat's training facilities in Wells. Angel has returned to Night City and will get 4 of his required 6 semesters of study done for his Bachelor of Science degree. Whyte Hat acquires a lot more land around Wells. Some property they buy, others they lease. With the Desert Devils destroyed, the Ranger Platoon is moved closer to Wells and based on a leased ranch outside of town. Mitzi takes over the main house as her residence.
In December of 2075, Suzy finally gets her Appeal heard on her manslaughter conviction. The verdict is overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct and an incorrect application of a sentencing in regards to a minor, which Suzy was at the time of the murder. They don't try her again as she has already served more time then she could legally be sentenced to, and her attorney claims she is now incapable of assisting in her own defense. The government happily agrees and after her release she is packed of to a private mental hospital. Suzy can send and receive the occasional phone call so she chats up Celestine, Valerie, Mia, Mitzi and Kathleen a bit.
As to everyone's characters I will go over what each of you are doing in a PM. We have discussed a bit of this already.
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Opps! Sorry, ignorant American here. I got my feet and meters mixed up!. The concrete wall is about 10 to 12 FEET tall. Also, this facility is surrounded by trees so RPG shots will have to navigate the trees. Also, you have one EEC Airjeep. These vehicles are to extract you which limits you to four people you can withdraw after the assault. The B-Team will lend you a sniper (Stepan Danylovitch) and a demo expert with good stealth skills.
Remember that the EMA-1 armor has NO protection against IR scanning. Any guard with IR vision has a decent chance of seeing you approach and one with thermographic vision has an excellent chance of the same. The Team also has access to standard armor made of SpyTex and equipped with ADAP inserts that give an all around SP of 24 (except head which is 25) plus any increase from skinweave. You might want to consider this armor, which is what the B-Team will be using. Of course, you can always use Angel to calculate the blast necessary to bring down the outer concrete wall. If it is reinforced with rebar then you will need a VERY large amount of explosives to guarantee making a big enough hole in the wall. The gates would be an easier target, but are probably better watched. Again, this is a player's choice.
11 hours ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:Use hand grenades to distract the defenders.
Use smoke to cover our entry once we have a breach.
Once we are inside, go with small arms and hand grenades, and play it by ear.
When the outer wall is breached, then the moves above sound like a good plan!
Once the radar unit and its associated electronics are destroyed, the four A-Team members will be withdrawn using the EEC Airjeep. The two B-Team members with you will link up with the est of the B-Team and start harassing the base and be ready with their MANPADS in case the attacks on the Desert Devil's runway isn't as successful as we hope. The B-Team also has a 60mm mortar. They will use this to engage the Desert Devils to keep them busy and (hopefully) their aircraft in the bunkers.
After these attacks on the Desert Devils early warning systems and the PetroChem missile and bomb strikes, the 155mm guns will open fire. At that point, we just use the heavy guns to destroy every facility in Alpha and wait for their counterattack. Whyte Hat will have its blocking forces in position and all the possible attack routes to Union Mountain covered.
Proposal for a Virtual Cyberpunk Game
in Cyberpunk RPG General Chat
Posted
Yes, I am familiar with the ONI. There is one on the Arasaka Mohanjin-C (ACPA) that Tai will be piloting. One solvable problem is that the ONI uses a slightly different round than the standard 10 gauge (4d6+3) and it is a Borg weapon generally used with shot which is suggested in the weapon's description, so Whyte Hat will have to make some in their workshops. Angel will need to design and supervise. Suzy would suggest a mixture of weapons. Your Viper suits don't hold much of anything; a pistol holder or combat knife sheath at largest. Hence the suits are often paired with 14mm pistols. Raven hasn't solved shrinking the glove down on the Viper yet, so each weapon has to be custom for use by the suit. The hand carried ONI is already adapted for use by the Viper. Suzy suggests that at least one or two people carry the 14.5mm Assault rifles that are also matched with he suits. Have them loaded with standard ammunition and a stray shot will NOT penetrate to the outside. It might rattle around inside a bit, but not enough to be dangerous to you in your Viper Suits (or EMA-1 armor). Everyone should pick their own weapon (for the most part) unless 8-Ball sees the need for something else specific.
That would be a big yes, but the Viper suits aren't designed to carry a lot. From the list above: 2x grenades, Taser nightstick, 14mm pistol and one small breaching charge per suit. There is now only room for two extra (double) 14.5mm clips. Of course you could have Angel remain on the roof to cover your rear and keep a large supply of grenades, breaching charges, other small gear and extra ammunition.
Now as to your questions on The Plan:
Now as to your expected opposition in the 'Penthouse'; you will be facing Metal Gear, lots of heavily cybered street warriors and perhaps a borg or two! Another alpha cyborg has definitely been spotted there by Andrea's informants, who also reports it was carrying a long (gun) bag. She can't say exactly, but Andrea estimates that there are between 18 and 20 defenders along with Big Al and his entourage of 8 to 10 (generally non or ineffective combatants).
OK, back to map design!