Allen1

To have two, four man teams you will need Crusher (he is currently using a Team EMA-1 Armor and has a FN-RAL.  You will also have access to the Swede (Metal Gear or National Guard Armor and a FN-RAL); Shaka (Metal Gear and M-14A; Billy Ray (Metal Gear or National Guard Armor and M-1 Garand.  This is what they have.

So, the ground assault Team should look like this: Suzy, Jake, Jamal, Shaka, Crusher, Billy Ray, 8-Ball and the Swede.  The Team also has a good supply of grenades.  I assume the Team members are going to wear their EMA-1 armor.  My thought is to pair Jamal with Shaka; 8-Ball will be paired with the Swede.  TigerGuard will control Crusher and Billy Ray as well as Cossack in the A-20.

How does this sound to everyone?

 

For those who have been following my Cyberpunk 2071 Campaign, we are reaching the end of a story arc.  Once the War with the Voodoo Boyz is finished, we will be kicking up the game a bit.  The Team is being sent to Elko County, Nevada (in the NE corner of that state) in an effort to reopen Interstate 80 and put an end to the banditry that has closed that transportation artery.  

Below is a Gazetteer for Elko County with some basic information for the players on what is there and who might be important.

 

Gazetteer for Elko County, Nevada

Adapted (very liberally) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

Nevada's location within the U.S.

Coordinates: 41°08′N 115°21′W

Country           United States

State    Nevada

Founded          1869; 152 years ago

Named for       Elko

Seat     Elko

Largest city      Elko

Area

 • Total            17,203 sq mi (44,560 km2)

 • Land 17,170 sq mi (44,500 km2)

 • Water          33 sq mi (90 km2)  0.2%

Population Estimate (2073)

 • Total            36,614

Time zones

Majority of county [1] UTC−8 (Pacific)

 • Summer (DST)         UTC−7 (PDT)

West Wendover[2]     UTC−7 (Mountain)

 • Summer (DST)         UTC−6 (MDT)

Website           elkocountynv.net

 

Elko County is a county in the northeastern corner of Nevada, United States.  Its county seat is Elko. The county was established on March 5, 1869, from Lander County.  The Elko County Commissioners approved Proclamation 2019-02 celebrating the 150th Birthday of Elko County on March 6, 2019.  This county is the fourth-largest county by area in the contiguous United States, ranking lower when the boroughs of Alaska are included. It is one of only 10 counties in the U.S. with more than 10,000 square miles (25,900 km2) of area.

Elko County is part of the Elko, NV Micropolitan Statistical Area. It contains 49.8 percent of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, set up in the late 19th century for the Shoshone-Paiute peoples; they are a federally recognized tribe. Although slightly more than 50% of the reservation is across the border in Owyhee County, Idaho, the majority of tribal members live on the Nevada side. The reservation's land area is 450.391 square miles (1,166.5 km2).

 

Contents

History

This area was long inhabited by Native American tribes of the Plateau, particularly the Western Shoshone, Northern Paiute, and Bannock peoples. Their traditional ways were disrupted after European-American settlement, as the two cultures competed for resources and had differing conceptions of land use and property.  Elko County was established in 1869 from Lander County; the name was taken from the name of the county seat, Elko.

In 1877 what became known as the Duck Valley Indian Reservation was established by presidential executive order for the Western Shoshone in this area, after they signed treaties with the United States. Later the Paiute became involved in the Bannock War, but after they were allowed to return from exile in Washington State, in 1886 another executive order was used to expand the reservation to accommodate them. The federally recognized tribe of the two peoples together conducts farming and ranching in this high desert territory.

The population of the county decreased markedly in the  21^st century as the economy collapsed.  The northern part of the county has been abandoned by the local Sherriff’s Department (they are understaffed) leaving the tribal Police from the Duck Valley Reservation as the primary order in that area.  The southern part of the county is a generally lawless area filled with bandits, those on the run from the authorities, and many people who have given up on modern society.  They do NOT respond well to any outside authority.  Interstate 80 is the spine around which the bulk of the population lives.  This highway isn’t too well maintained (the county tries a little), since the state and Federal government have abandoned it.  Circumstances often force independent truckers and others to use this thoroughfare, which is infamous for its bandit attacks.  Often truck convoys organize to move together, but sometimes this brings the Desert Devils up from Eureka County for massive raids on the highway.     

 

Geography

Sagebrush steppe in Elko County, Nevada along US 93. This view is characteristic of most of the county.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 17,203 square miles (44,560 km2), of which 17,170 square miles (44,500 km2) is land and 33 square miles (85 km2) (0.2%) is water.[7] Not counting Alaska's boroughs (four of which are also larger), it is the fourth-largest county in area in the United States (behind San Bernardino County, California, Coconino County, Arizona, and Nye County, Nevada). The elevation ranges from about 4,300 feet (1,300 m) at the edge of the salt flats of the Great Salt Lake Desert, to 11,387 feet (3,471 m) on the summit of Ruby Dome in the Ruby Mountains.[9] The most topographically prominent mountain in Elko County is Pilot Peak.

The county has three physiographic sections (70% Great Basin section, 20% Payette, 10% Snake River Plain) and 4 watersheds (45% Humboldt River, 30% Upper Snake River, 20% central Nevada desert, 5% Pilot-Thousand Springs).  Lightning-sparked wildfires are common occurrences in Elko County.

Adjacent counties

    Owyhee County, Idaho - northwest/Mountain Time Border

    Twin Falls County, Idaho - north/Mountain Time Border

    Cassia County, Idaho - northeast/Mountain Time Border

    Box Elder County, Utah - east/Mountain Time Border

    Tooele County, Utah - southeast/Mountain Time Border

    White Pine County - south

    Eureka County - southwest

    Lander County - southwest

    Humboldt County - west

 

Time Zones

Except for West Wendover which is in the Mountain Time Zone, the county is in the Pacific Time Zone, though other communities such as Owyhee, Mountain City, Jarbidge and Jackpot unofficially observe Mountain Time as well due to their proximity to, and economic connections with, neighboring areas of Idaho.

 

Demographics

As of the census[14] of 2000, there were 45,291 people, 15,638 households, and 11,493 families living in the county. The population density was 2.25/sq mi. The racial makeup of the county is 82.04% White, 0.59% Black or African American, 5.30% Native American, 0.68% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 8.50% from other races, and 2.78% from two or more races. 19.73% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Of all the households, 39.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.7% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 28.7% were non-families, and 22.5% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.26. The median age was 33.4 years.[15]

 

Government and Politics

Elko is a highly conservative area. Local officials became disgusted with party politics, so all local elections are non-partisan.  No political parties are allowed to organize a slate of candidates.

 

Elko County Commissioners

There are nine; one from each major town plus Spring Valley, an extra for Elko, one at-large and two Native American Commissioners (one from Duck Valley and another from the Te-Moak Band, the colonies).

The county judge, district attorney and Sherriff; each serves 12 years with one of the three positions up every Presidential/Senatorial election year.

The four major towns (Carlin, Elko, Wells and West Wendover) all have an elected mayor and city / town council.  The size of these councils varies.

 

Law Enforcement

The Sherriff’s Department has 53 members (29 full-time/24 part-time) – City of Elko  & Spring Valley: 14 full time/11 part time; West Westover: 3 full-time/5 part-time; Town of Town of Carlin: 8 full-time/5 part-time; Town of Wells:  4 full-time/3 part-time.

Nevada Border Patrol; West Wendover: 6 full time  

Elko, towns and other recognized habitations have a police force numbering at least one policemen/constables per 500 people, a town magistrate and a town clerk.

There are two tribal police forces in the county.  One for the Duck Valley Reservation and one for the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshoni.  Nomad bands pass through here regularly and they have their own police they call, ‘Dog Soldiers’.  The nearby Goshute Reservation staddles the Utah and Nevada border just south of Elko County in White Pine County.  This reservation is often called the Snake Nation Reservation as many Goshute Native Americans joined the Nomad Movement during the collapse.  They returned to the reservation and brought many of their nomad friends with them.  This is where Fawkes’ family are (on the Nevada side).  As long as that family remains there they are safe from the Texas Rangers and Petrochem.  The local police are supposed to arrest them, but as you learned in Episode 42, the Elko County Sheriff’s Department just doesn’t want to see them around.  It doesn’t make the family completely safe, but it’s the best they can do.      

 

Transportation

A number of highways maintained by the Nevada Department of Transportation, some national in prominence, cross Elko County. The county also maintains a network of county routes; however, many of them are unpaved and receive limited, if any, winter maintenance.

Transportation by means other than road vehicle is limited within Elko County. Commercial air service is available only at the Elko Regional Airport in Elko; the only destination currently served is Salt Lake City International Airport. Other public airports in Elko County include Jackpot Airport, Owyhee Airport and Wells Municipal Airport.

 

Major highways

    I-80 (NV).svg Interstate 80

    Business Loop 80.svg Interstate 80 Business (Carlin)

    Business Loop 80.svg Interstate 80 Business (Elko)

    Business Loop 80.svg Interstate 80 Business (Wells)

    Business Loop 80.svg Interstate 80 Business (West Wendover, Nevada–Wendover, Utah)

    US 93.svg U.S. Route 93

    Alt plate.svg

    US 93.svg U.S. Route 93 Alternate

    Nevada 221.svg State Route 221

    Nevada 223.svg State Route 223

    Nevada 225.svg State Route 225

    Nevada 226.svg State Route 226

    Nevada 227.svg State Route 227

    Nevada 228.svg State Route 228

    Nevada 229.svg State Route 229

    Nevada 230.svg State Route 230

    Nevada 231.svg State Route 231

    Nevada 232.svg State Route 232

    Nevada 233.svg State Route 233

    Nevada 278.svg State Route 278

    Nevada 535.svg State Route 535

    Nevada 766.svg State Route 766

    Nevada 767.svg State Route 767

 

Communities  

Cities

    Carlin (pop: 1,868)

   Elko (county seat) (pop. 15,754)

    Wells (pop. 862)

    West Wendover (pop. 2,217)

 

Census-designated places

     Jackpot (pop. ~650). This town on the Idaho boarder had a successful casino and was riding out the collapse fairly well until a huge force of bandits from both Idaho and Nevada sacked the place about seven years ago.  This ‘town’ was left a collection of the few survivors.  Soon criminal gangs from nearby states began to gather there.  They have organized and reopened one of the old casinos as a no holes barred entertainment destination for those who can't afford Arcadia or Las Vegas.  They supplement their income by raids which are usually directed at Idaho with some groups occasional striking at Interstate 80.  Last year, however, they launched a devastating attack on Wells and seriously crippled the town's infrastructure.   

    Osino (pop. 476):  This small town survives only because of a few businesses and its closeness to the City of Elko.

    Owyhee (pop.963):  This is the main settlement in the Duck Valley Reservation of the Shoshoni – Paiute tribe.  This reservation has a school system, a small hospital and an airport.  It is defended by a tribal police force backed up by a well-armed Native American militia.  The tribal police range far outside their reservation as the Elko County sheriffs’ reach doesn’t come this far north.  This tribe has taken over the Wild Horse Reservoir and surrounding area since the state and the county no longer have the funds (or interest) in maintaining it.  The tribal police and sheriff’s department generally have a good relationship.  However, the sheriff’s department has NO authority on the reservation.        

    Spring Creek (pop. 7,142):  This large settlement is located in a large valley between the Elko Hills and the Ruby Mountains and is mainly a bedroom community for the City of Elko a few miles to the north. 

 

Other Unincorporated Places

    Jarbidge (pop. ~116):  This tiny town has no paved roads leading to it and is often impossible   to reach in the winter due to weather.  It’s isolation has saved it from destruction.  The people aren’t very friendly.  This is believed due to the number of times it has been raided. 

    Halleck (pop. 112):  A town that almost died until the 1% motorcycle club, the Visigoths, moved in.  Almost the entire town’s population belongs to, are related to someone in or friends with the bikers.  They scrupulously maintain their town “government” with a magistrate, town clerk and a constable (the club’s Warlord).  The primary concern of the club (and town) is smuggling although they have been known to hijack an occasional truck.  It is located just off Interstate 80 between Elko and Wells.      

   Lee (pop. 120):  This is the only town in the South Fork Reservation of the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshoni.  It has its own tribal police force.

    Mountain City (pop. ~40): It is almost a ghost town with a few Shoshoni / Paiute living nearby

    Ryndon (pop. ~250):  This is a small spread out community just east of the City of Elko on Interstate 80.

    Shantytown (pop. ~700):  This the infamous “Trade Town” that serves as a market place for Nomads, Bandits, Wasteland Raiders and Raffin Shiv.  It has extensive defenses and a well-armed militia.  This is an official town as it has a Town Clerk, Magistrate and two Constables.  These four run this place and are extremely corrupt. 

    Tuscarora (pop. ~100):  This former mining town is almost a ghost town.  The population dwindles in the winter, but rises a bit in the warmer months.  It suffers from bandit raids, but the few inhabitants have little to steal.

    Wild Horse (pop. ~60): This is a collection of houses south of the Wild Horse Reservoir.  It is about 50-50 ratio of Native Americans and primarily white population.  Although it is in the jurisdiction of the Elko County Sheriff’s Department, it is the tribal police of the Duck Valley Reservation that patrol the area.

 

Ghost towns

    Arthur – A number of ranches continue to operate in and around Arthur. Many 19th-century buildings are still in use.

    Bullion – At present nothing remains but large slag heaps, smelter foundations, stone ruins, and a small cemetery.

    Cobre – Nothing remains, but two collapsing buildings   

    Contact

   Currie 

    Deeth – Nothing really left of town except ruined foundations

    Dinner Station

    Hunter – A former mining town, but now, only smelter ruins mark the site of the old town.

    Huntington

   Jack Creek -  A former rustic resort that is now a ruin and abandoned.

    Jiggs

    Lamoille – This small community east of Spring Creek has been abandoned due to bandit & Raffin Shiv raids.         

    Metropolis – Only some stone ruins remain. 

    Midas – There are some buildings left in this old mining town and sometimes people are living there.

    Montello – Another small community that has been destroyed by recent raids

    North Fork

    Oasis

    Patsville

    Pleasant Valley – An abandoned village between Lamoille and Spring Creek)

    Pequop – A former railroad siding abandoned in the 1940s when trains through the area switched to diesel engines.

    San Jacinto – This town is gone, but there is a large ranch occupying that area. 

   Shafter – Only the foundations of this tiny town remain.

    South Fork – This is a semi-ghost town as it was nothing more than a vacation destination around the now closed South Fork State Reservation Area. 

    Welcome – Basically, an abandoned rest area

 

Native American Tribes

Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshoni

Duck Valley Reservation (Northern Paiute & Shoshoni)

 

Hospitals & Medical Facilities

This is an area where Elko County has a serious lacking in infrastructure.  There is only one hospital in the county (Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital) located in the City of Elko.  This is a rather poorly equipped facility (a +4 to all medical procedures).  However, it does have a full surgical suite and is open 24 hours. 

In Carlin, there is the Carlin Community Health Center, which isn’t always open.  It isn’t well-equipped and adds only a +2 to all medical procedures.  They are very experienced in dealing with gunshot wounds.

Wells has the Wells Rural Medical Clinic on Humboldt Avenue.  There is a full time nurse practitioner when the facility is open.  Again, this facility adds only a +2 to all medical procedures.  The town does have a dentist, however.

West Wendover has the Wendover Community Health Center.  It used to be part of the Nevada Health Centers, but the state cut it loose when they abandoned supporting Elko County.  It is funded now by local businesses and the Nevada Border Patrol (they have an office in West Wendover).  It is only a +2 to all medical procedures facility.  Just across the border in Utah is the Tooele County Health Department’s Wendover office.  This is a +3 facility, but it doesn’t accept patients from Elko County without prior arrangement (unless from West Wendover and sent over from that health center across the border.

The Duck Valley Shoshoni – Paiute Reservation has the Owyhee Community Health Center which serves the needs of the Native American population there, although they will treat non-natives as well, but only with cash upfront!  No insurance company will honor their bills.  This is a +3 facility with few beds. 

There are very few doctors in this area.  Working here isn’t very profitable and doctors in the small town have been known to be kidnapped by local bandit gangs for ransom or to provide medical services for the bandits.         

 

Details on Wells, Nevada

Wells is a dying town that has suffered greatly in the Collapse.  The Sherriff’s substation here can barely keep the bandits at bay.  These raids and lack of traffic on Interstate 80 has brought about the end of the three travel and service areas in the town.  Only the old Petro Travel Center north of the highway has any building that aren’t ruined and completely looted of the three.  There is almost never any fuel available and the old Intermoutain Tire Center is a small time vehicle repair facility.  They are known for NOT asking any questions about the damaged vehicles brought in.  The Motel 6 across the street from here is gone and the Rest Inn Suites was rebuilt 15 years ago.  It is in a state of disrepair, but still open. 

 

Wells Government

This town has a mayor and a four person Town Council.  The mayor and three council members serve for 8 years.  Two of these four are up for reelection every four years.  The fourth member of the town council is appointed by the Wells Colony of the Te-Moak Shoshoni Tribe.  The vote was 3 to 2 to approve ‘Elko Transport’ setting up shop in the town. 

Mayor Tammy Grimes:  A middle aged woman who also owns The Soap Box Laundromat on 6^th Street.  She isn’t completely convinced that bring the Team in to reopen the highway is the best idea, but she sees no other way to avoid the town’s collapse.  Her brother is the minister at the local Mormon Church in Wells.

Councilman John Gifford:  This man is from one of the oldest families in Wells.  He owns Wells Propane Inc located at the corner of Humboldt Avenue and Dover Street.  He and his extensive family are opposed to bringing in outsiders to solve their problems.  He has a particular distaste for the Federal Government. 

Councilman Rafael Hernandez:  He owns Roadway Towing and Repair so his livelihood depends on Interstate 80.  Although he doesn’t like outsiders, he realizes the town needs help.

Councilman Holden Cliburn:  This man is a long time resident of Wells and is the manager of the Nevada State Bank on the corner of 6^th Street and Lake Avenue.  He is strongly opposed to the idea of any group coming in to solve the ‘bandit problem’.  This councilman wants the State of Nevada to do this.

Councilwoman Haiwee (Dove) Mosho:  This woman is the Shoshoni Wells Colony representative and surprised everyone by supporting having the town bring in outside help in dealing with the bandits plaguing Interstate 80.  

Francine Walters:  This woman is the town clerk of Wells and issues all permits, collects taxes and deals with paying the town’s bills.   

Nathan Harper:  This older gentleman is from another old family in town.  He serves as the Town Magistrate.

Frank Garner:  He is the head of the Wells Water Department.  Since Wells is the location of the beginning of the Humboldt River, there is no water shortage here. 

Gail Harper:  She is a retired teacher of the Wells School system.  The schools collapsed two years ago and she came out of retirement to teach some basic classes to the young people in town.  This is another member of the local Harper Family (she is Nathan Harpers 1^st cousin). 

 

Local Wells Notables:

Albert Collins:  This man owns the 333 Ranch, which used to be a large multi-property operation, but the collapse has reduced it to only one location just south of Interstate 80 midway between Wells and Oasis (a ghost town).  He is a singularly unfriendly man, with an extreme dislike of the government due to their withdrawal from the area.  He also maintains a small militia. 

Charlie Franks:  This man owns Great Basin Beverage, a local bottling works.  The place does get raided but the bandits never steal or destroy the equipment.  After all, there would be no more product to steal if the bandits did that.  Mr. Franks came to town about ten years ago when he bought the failing company.  He lost his race for a town council seat to John Gifford in the last election (2072).

Mark Pearce Jr.:  This man owns the Memory Ranch, which is a large family owned horse breeding facility.  The same family has been there for over 100 years.  The Pearce Family maintains its own small private militia to defend against bandits.  They generally keep to themselves.

Nanette Jackson:  This woman and her family own the Antelope Peak Ranch which The ranch is located 15 miles north of Wells, Nevada.  The ranch is well watered and contains about 400 head of cattle along with a small agricultural operation.  As with most ranches in the area that still exist, they maintain a small militia to defend against raiders.

Roy Batty:  This man is the owner of Roy’s Market, the Napa Auto Parts Store and Wells Auto and Hardware.  As such he is one of the richest men in town.  He keeps armed guards on duty at all times.

Salvatore Garcia:  This man is a third generation Wells resident and owns Garcia’s Auto Salvage and Dismantling, which his father founded.  With all the wrecks that appear on Interstate 80, he is doing good business.  It is located on 10^th Street just north of US 93, the Great Basin Highway.

William Phelps:  This man owns the Wells Saloon on the corner of 6^th Street and Lake Avenue.  It is in the old Trail of the 49ers Interpretive Center and next to the closed   El Rancho Hotel, Bar and Casino on Lake Avenue.  The Wells Saloon is one of the most popular bar / clubs in the town.  The owner is a very popular man in town as his family has lived here for almost 200 years.

 

Churches in Wells

Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints:  This is the local Mormon Church which is one of the most attended in town.  Reverend Scott Grimes is the minister.

Community Protestant Church:  A small non-denominational Church that reopened a couple of years ago.  Reverend Karen Baker is the minister. 

St. Thomas Aquinas Church:  This is a small catholic church that was closed for a long time, but has since reopened to serve the town’s small Catholic population with a new and young priest, Father Mark Donnelly. 

Wells Baptist Church:  This is the oldest and largest (membership wise) of the local Wells churches.  Reverend Maxine Scott is the minister there and she is a firebrand evangelical; not very popular with the other religious leaders. 

 

Wells Colony of the Te-Moak Shoshoni

The population of the colony is close to 70 residents and an enrollment of 237.  They have a six member Tribal Band Council with Paula Woods as Chairman.  The colony has a Smoke  and Gift Shop along with a community gymnasium.  There is one full time tribal policeman, Officer Tom ‘Standing Buffalo’ Harris  and two part timers, Officer Grace Healey and Officer Steve ‘Wirasuap’ (Bear Spirit) Woods.  The children of the colony used to attend the Wells Schools, but as they are closed, education is now the responsibility of the parents.  Health care is provided by the Indian Health Service's Southern Band Clinic in Elko and the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital.  .   

 

Other Persons of Interest in Elko County

Sherriff Henry ‘Hank’ Johnson is the Sherriff of Elko County.  He is also a strong supporter of bringing in the Team.  His department can no longer safely protect the county. 

Karl Gunderson, the County Commissioner from Wells, Nevada.  He is one of the Team’s strongest supporters as the base that will be set up will bring economic benefit to his town. 

Gail Meadows, the County Commissioner from the City of Elko, who met with Mitzi on the first visit there.  Samantha discovered later she is a follower of Max Gruik, the wanted sexual predator and leader of the One True Path.  Mitzi believes it may have been her that tipped off the Desert Devils about their visit leading to the shoot-out at the Wells Saloon.

Hopefully this will be enough to get everyone started on planning on what to do.  More information will be forthcoming.

 

 

You are NOT aware of what the roofs and floors of the bunkers are made of, so I can't comment on plunging fire.  However, Suzy plans to use 40mm HEDP ammunition to bust open the bunkers.  Frag/HE grenades just won't do the trick here, or so she thinks.  

Good question!  There is a small storm drain in the (east-west) road under the Interstate 16 Loop.  NCPD tried to gain access to the under highway bunker that way, but the VDBs have it covered.  There are several police recovering in the hospital from that fiasco.  NCPD now has that blocked, so no one is getting in or out that way.  Still, if you want to try to go up against a gang that has been using the sewers to move around in for years, be my guest.  

 

As to the attack itself:  Absolutely, the Team should take its time with this, once the attack begins.  The initial assault on the Voodoo Boyz HQ (Episode 43) was well planned.  Kudos to 8-Ball on his paired approach to the attack.  However, the plan immediately fell apart and wasn't followed.  No finger pointing, but everyone should have studied it better because it was a good plan.  The attack on the Burkett Mall worked much better, because everyone on the Team followed the plan, initially.  I think that people moved forward too quickly once the juvies were put to flight.  Fawkes advanced before Suzy had finished securing her prisoner, (who died anyway) and then (by his own admission) incorrectly opened the first back door without any back-up.  Maybe 8-Ball and Crusher should have waited until Fawkes and Suzy were done securing the flank before advancing down the main south hallway.  In a sense, 8-Ball and Crusher owe their lives to Fawkes' error.  Every enemy in that room was about to swarm the main southern hallway when Fawkes opened the back hallway door and drew fire.  If he hadn', then all of those gangers (and they were all super combat capable leaders types) would have swarmed 8-Ball and Crusher.  Still, the Team did wonderfully and no one died except the enemy. 

Yes, Sun Tzu also recommended not surrounding the enemy and giving them an avenue to escape.  Surrounded warriors often fight to the death.  Well, in this case, you really can't let any of these gangers get away in any sufficient numbers.  Imagine how miserable your life could become if this gang escaped to Eureka County, Nevada and hooked up with the Desert Devils.  The Team does know that these two groups have decided to work against you all.  The Desert Devils are planning to send support for the gigantic gang attack on South Beach planned for July 4th.  Of course, that attack is looking less and less likely, which makes a Voodoo Boyz retreat to the Desert Devils even more likely.

When I find the time between preparing the next episode and the move to Elko County, I will work on an official weapons list for Arasaka Te.  While PAC RIM doesn't have any particular weapons listed for Arasaka Te (in fact Arasaka Te isn't even listed), this martial art is an amalgamation of a number of other martial arts, so there is a large number of weapons available to it.  Knives, combat knives, switchblades, katanas, wakizashis are a few of the weapons that are available.  You get to pick two (strike/cast/punch) weapons per level of Arasaka Te, but these have to be approved before you can claim them.  Jake primarily teaches bladed weapons.  If you want a martial art weapon for your character, send me a request and I will note that it one of your trained weapons.

OK, back to session planning!

      

There is NO information about non-combatants present in the VDBs compound around West Beach.  Basically, if someone is armed, you shoot; if they surrender, you take them prisoner, but I wouldn't count on too many surrendering as the NCPD and the local District Attorney have filed capital charges against every prisoner taken so far.  Still, the orders are to accept surrender and no killing unconscious enemies.

The bunkers labeled A & C are two story concrete (and maybe reinforced) structures about 3 meters by 2 meters.  They are big enough to house some heavy weapons, but nothing too large.  An RPG could be fired from the 2nd story, but not from the first (due to back blast).  Bunker B is 4 meters by 3 meters. but is only one story tall.  However, it does have a roof position that can be manned and is protected.  Yes, the NCPD believes they can fire in all directions.

The NCPD has secured the area (more or less) to the west of the Interstate 16 Loop and blocked off any escape for the remaining VDBs.  They also want the Team to attack from the east (combat zone).  They took heavy casualties when they cleared out the Voodoo Boyz from the 44th Street Station area.  Since the survivors that have gathered in West Beach represent many of the leadership and a lot of Ogun and Samedi Set members, officials want them suppressed before they can scatter.  

The Voodoo Boyz are clever, but NOT tactically brilliant.  The have altered their defenses after each attack by the police and the Team to counter the last move.  They are kind of like the French between the two World Wars and are reactionary; not very proactive.  The lettered bunkers are a serious problem.  The bunker under the overpass is about the size of that overpass and is the final target for this attack.  Yes, the ground north and south of this area may be mined, and a hovercraft will usually not set off a pressure mine, but, if they are command detonated, the hovercraft could be in serious trouble.           

Suzy is ready to unleash everything she can to take this gang out.  Her suggestion is a different attack than they used at the Burkett Mall, but will appear to be similar at first.  The plan has four parts.  First, the A-20 Panzer will enter the combat zone and loop around east of the target zone.  In it will be Cossack, Mouse and Angel (commander & crew) along with six Chrome Berets in Metal Gear of Assault Armor.  Second, the Armadillo will be set up 450 meters west of the target zone inside the NCPD perimeter on the west side of the Interstate 16 Loop.  Third, the ground Assault Team will infiltrate the Combat Zone and set up off the eastern edge of the map and out of sight.  The suggested members of this group are 8-Ball, Crusher, Jamal, the Swede, Suzy, Jake, and up to two more Chrome Berets, if TigerGuard wants in on the ground attack.  The fourth group consists of Stepan and Banzai Jack (from the Chrome Berets).  They will be the sniper team and will move in with the ground assault, but will set up at range.  With the death of Jacko in the Voodoo Boyz bombing of the Team's headquarters, the gang is outraged and out for blood!

The actual assault should run like this.  Once every one is in position the A-20 Panzer will appear on the street due east of the VDB's prepared position at a range of ~580 meters.  Two of the Chrome Berets will be in the open hatches behind the turret to discourage any foolish attackers.  This is far enough away so most all enemy rifle and machine-gun fire will be at extended range.  The tank will move forward slowly and begin firing on the various buildings inside the enemy perimeter.  At this range the tank will be out of sight of the three lettered bunkers.  There is a dip in the road that goes under the overpass, so firing on or from that bunker won't be much of a threat until you get closer.  At this point, the Armadillo will begin ranging fire with its 40mm Auto GL on one of the lettered bunkers.  Once they have range, they will unleash a barrage and reduce that bunker.  After that, it will be 'rinse and repeat' until all the lettered bunkers are destroyed.  Hopefully, the VDBs will be expecting a charge and ground assault like the previous two fights, but no, that isn't what will happen.  When the grenades and cannon starts firing, the ground assault will clear the houses east of the enemy position.  Yes, the NCPD estimate there is about up to a half dozen enemy in each of those two blocks of buildings (north and south of road).  These buildings are ruined.  They are mostly empty shells with not much left of any second floors.  

By the time the lettered bunkers are destroyed by the Armadillo, the ground troops should have cleared out the ruined buildings to the east.  At that point, we should follow Mikael's idea of filling the roads with smoke and have the infantry clear out any buildings left standing from the 30mm autocannon fire.  Once the VDBs have been forced back into their underpass bunker, we call for surrender, which they will probably refuse to do.  Then we: a) set explosives and blow down the defensive wall they have built under the bridge, or b) bring up the A-20 and blow the wall down.  The Voodoo Boyz only escape will be to charge the Team or the police if they want to escape. 

Ah, yes, with allied gangs the estimated number of enemy is now 27 to 35.  There are a lot of the enemy, but you have just about all of your big toys!  Please remember, this IS the Big Boss Fight, so it won't be easy. 

   

Yes, NCPD has sighted a few Storm Kings in the West Beach area hanging with the VDBs.

Before I start going over items regarding Elko County, Nevada, I want to finish preparation for the (hopefully) last episode in your War with the Voodoo Boyz.  We ended on 6/22/73 with the Voodoo Boyz lair in the Burkett Mall being cleaned out.  At that same time, Sarg. Tanque with some of his NCPD squad backed up by Federal agents lead by Officer Teresa Suárez storms the Kalfu Set's secret lair near the Southland Mall and destroys that group.    The next day, the Team is VERY busy repairing gear and such.  On 6/23, NCPD backed up by C-SWAT strikes hard at the 44th Street Station neighborhood headquarters of the Agassu Set of the Voodoo Boyz.  Most of the gangers are killed but some do escape to West Beach, the HQ of the Agwe Set, the only place left to the Voodoo Boyz. 

The remnants of the various sets of the VDBs have gathered under a fortified, ruined overpass on the Interstate 16 Loop.  Below is a map that shows the location.  The highway is elevated here.  There used to be and entrance and exit ramp on the east side of this underpass, but it was destroyed years ago.  The highway itself has destroyed vehicles on it (not on map) and can't be approached from the west, north or south.  It isn't possible to climb up to the highway from the east and can't be approached from the west.  The western end of the overpass has a wall blocking entrance to the bunker under the highway.  It is a strong fortified position with a number of firing ports covering the approaches.  The NCPD is set up beyond there to stop any retreat to the west.  The Bunkers A, B, & C also has gunports and is fairly immune to weapons fire although the 30mm autocannon and LATGM of the A-20 might be able to bring them down with enough ammunition.  The light buildings on the estern part of the map aren't in great shape and have few people living there, especially since the Voodoo Boyz have dug in there. 

The Team will have to enter the east edge of the battle map and move west.  If you have questions, please send them to me.  

 

The dark brown areas north and south of the 3 lettered bunkers and east of the highway is rough ground.  The NCPD reports that the Voodoo Boyz have been seeing planting things in those areas.  Again, DO NOT approach down the Interstate 16 Loop as it is under fire occasionally from a places around the area.  The Team will need to clear out both the lettered bunkers and the one under the overpass, as well as the buildings between the lettered bunkers.  The Voodoo Boyz are expected to number between 22 and 30.  Also, none of the buildings to the east have line of sight into any of the Voodoo Boyz' prepared positions.  Good Luck!

 

If we are successful in driving the juvies away, enough time will have pasted that everyone else will definitely be ready.  with the hard core Voodoo Boyz numbering between 20 to 30 that will leave us outnumbered between 3.5 and 5 to 1!  Splitting off into two divided groups at this point could be fatal as one group could get easily overwhelmed.  Also, without sensors inside, the Battle Mapper will NOT know where the enemy is.  The roof of the mall is impervious to thermographic vision from aerial drones.

Answers:

• A lot of this map is best guess.  The walls and doors are right as of a few weeks ago.  The insides of the open store are probably accurate, but the closed stores are unknown.
• There is no information on the Burkett Bouncers (not even the police know about them.  The Savage Slits have a special tattoo, or so it is said.  Only members know where and what it is.

The next question should be, who will the pairs consist of.  Only the GM and Mikael could run a pair by themselves.  It wouldn't make sense for the GM to control a pair so the question is: Does 8-Ball want to be paired with Crusher, an npc?  It is true that 8-Ball does speak 'gangese', but Suzy ran with some of the gangs associated with this place years ago.  What makes sense to me is to have 8-Ball and Crusher behind the tower shields facing down the long southern hallway.  Suzy and Fawkes sweep the juvies out the east door, and Jake and Jamal hold the nexus where the two main corridors meet.  Once the juvies are cleared, we can work our way south.

 

As for Elko County - The Snake Nation 'area' is actually in White Pine County just to the south.  Also, Whyte Hat's contract was voted down by the county commissioners by a vote of 2 to 5.  Only the Wells commissioner and the Carlin commissioner voted for the contract.  The Team will be going in a different way.  The troops will be raised out of Night City.  Kronos and others will be involved for sure, but the Team will generally NOT be in on this.  Once the political and economic powers have made their moves, the Team will be informed, but by then the unit will be up and in training.  As to the Chrome Berets, Crusher will have already talked to Sarge about leaving before he even asks 8-Ball.  As for jobs for the two sisters with Whyte Hat, Mary doesn't want to be a cook for the troops.  She started her restaurant to move beyond being the chef for the Chrome Berets; she wants a life.  A restaurant in Wells won't sound like a bad idea to her.  As to Kathleen?  She's just 13 years old!  The girl needs to go to school, not work for a mercenary unit.  There will be plenty of time for that later.  Still, you probably will have trouble keeping her out of the vehicle garages, and she is very handy with a wrench.

8-Ball is quite free to recruit from other chapters of the Chrome Berets for the mercenary unit.  You should also know, the Night City Chapter has had quite the rebirth.  They have two local people wishing to join and a member of the Pensacola chapter (Spanish-American War, normally, but this man has Vietnam Vet great grandparents), who is on his way.            

 

   

So, in the various PMs I have received, people have asked questions about when and if the Team will be heading to Elko County, Nevada to reopen old Interstate 80 and try to get the lawlessness that is spreading out across that state from northeastern Nevada.  As of now, yes, that is currently the first part of the next arc of this campaign.  

The Team has succeeded in reestablishing their reputation and standing in Night City.  It is time to take a step up in this Cyberpunk world and deal with the larger issues in this world.  If the Team survives the War with the Voodoo Boyz, new opportunities will arise for them.  I intend to introduce some non-standard (post 2020) technology.  The offer from the C.I.A. for the Team to participate in a trial of some new Bioware is the first of these additions.  There will be others in the future.  At the end of the current gang war, if victorious, there will be few gangs that want to mess with the Team.  What I intend is to do the next six months or so as a 'blue booking' session.  Each player will get to have one of their two characters to receive some additional training.  Angel will be attending Night City Technical College during this time, for instance.  Most of the player characters will continue working with Whyte Hat doing, what we have been calling, the 'small jobs.

In Episode 42, some went to Elko County to talk to some of the local officials about setting up a branch of Whyte Hat there.  However, the Elko County commission has voted against hiring the Team.  This isn't the end of the story, as there are people, who very much want this to happen.  Without going into how this will work out, the Team will be heading to Elko County in January or February 2074.  Most on the Team will not know about this move until a couple of months before that.  At this point the plan is to raise a small mercenary force numbering about 200+ for this job.  Half of these soldiers will be combat specialists and the other half will be support personnel.  The force will be recruited primarily from ex-military people, but not exclusively.  It is possible that Crusher will take a page from 8-Ball's career book.  He might leave the Chrome Berets and take a job with Whyte Hat.  His primary concern may well be to get his two sisters. Mary and Kathleen, to a place of relative safety.  

Again, none of this is 'set in stone' so to speak', but I wanted to give everyone a heads up.  I will speak to each player privately about what each character will be doing during this time.  For now, lets concentrate on eliminating the Voodoo Boyz!     

 

OK, so Stepan is in as a sniper.

Yes, that is a large door to the south of Port-au-Prince Trading Post on the center of the south wall of the mall.  Once Cossack drops off the Team and 'opens' the door, it might be a good idea to go and cover that door. 

21 hours ago, TigerGuard said:

Will we be seeing the layout of the facility prior to Saturday morning?

Yes, I do believe you will later on in this post!

14 hours ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:

"Criminal entreprises", heck. 8-Ball - being essentially a ganger - doesn't see much of a problem with thme being "criminal". Nothing wrong with being on the wrong side of law, if you ask him. Being on the wrong side of (his particular) set of morals is a different thing. 

Well, Suzy didn't mean her comment to seem like she is above all that.  She freely admits that she help rob Dope for Dopes at this mall years ago when she was a teen and running with a gang.  That is why she is so familiar with this mall.  Anyway, she doesn't want any of the juvies here to get killed.  That said, drones have picked up some armed juvies (no big guns).  These armed juvies might be what is left of the two rival juvie gangs here under the defunct Blood Reign.  This new group of kids call themselves the Burkett Bouncers.  They have no known gang tag as of yet. 

The layout of the Burkett Mall has a food court in the northeast corner that has been taken over by (mostly) juvie homeless.  They will be 'encouraged' to flee with tear gas and loud commands to flee to the NCART Station.  The Voodoo Boyz are concentrated in the old shopping concourse that goes north to south.  There are four shops that are 'open'.  

'B' - The XXX Experience is a scummy erotic brain dance operation run by the Savage Slits, an all girl gang (former juvies).  They are treacherous thieves.

'C' - Dope 4 Dopes is a illegal drug den that was run by Chubby Chuck, a heavy set toad of a sybarite.

'D' - Quick Cash is a pawn shop that used to be owned by the Blood Reign.  The Voodoo Boyz just took it over.   

'E' - Port-au-Prince Trading Company located here used to be called Used stuff, a thrift store.  Now they think it is a cover for the Loco Set's main office. 

There is a basement which has some temporary cubicles, but there are also old leaky sewer pipes.  Because of this the whole place reeks and no one goes down there.  Whoever is assigned to take the main stairs and freight elevator [This is map area 'A'] will be given a drone to set loose there that will start to sweep the basement.

The room has lots of HVAC (heating & cooling) equipment.  There are four gangers with long guns on roof.  one over each entrance and one that wanders.  Suzy wants to bring in Stepan Danylovych as a sniper for the attack, if that is OK with Cossack.

Here is the map:

   

So, my proposed opening for the attack is to have the A-20 come south along Airport Avenue.  With the 30mm autocannon Cossack will destroy the main northwest door, the wall into area 'A' and shred the security office.  Six people will enter that NW door and act in three pairs.  Pair One will set shaped charges on the two doors leading to the west and north back corridors.  The charges are set to explode if someone opens the door.  This pair will then move to back up the Second and Third pair.  The Second Pair will move (maybe behind ballistic tower shields) to a spot at the top of the north - south corridor and engage anyone in the hall.  The third pair will sweep the juvies out of the food court area with tear gas and 'harsh language'.  For them, it is run or die, although being a quaking bundle of tears works too.

Once the juvies are scattered, all three pairs will link up and sweep south.  XXX Experience will need a couple of flash bangs which should keep them calm.  The other three businesses belong to the Voodoo Boyz.  Stepan can take care of the four on the roof.  Airborne drones will look for anyone who wishes to intervene and Cossack, Angel and Mouse in the A-20 can deal with them.  

There is a small mistake on the map.  The room between 'C' & 'D' does have a door to the back corridor.  The inside of the mall is about 67 meters north to south.  Oh yes, and like the Voodoo Boyz HQ, don't always believe the labels on the barrels and crates. 

Airborne drone surveillance right up to the attack puts the Voodoo Boyz numbers at about 20 to 30 with maybe 6 to 8 armed juvies backing them up.  I hope this gives everyone some info to plan with.  Shoot your questions back.

 

 

Some replies are due here:

First, when, Crusher 'checked' the door in the SW corner of the room in the VDB's HQ, I said it was a heavy door and I didn't compare it to either of the entrance doors.  Crusher didn't stop by the door and examine it with his absolutely NO technical or intrusion skills.  The door had a key look, a tough one, but Fawkes might have been able to open it.  No loss except that the US military now has the 'Blue Goo', which may or may not be a good thing.  Still, its off the streets, so that is one for the win column.   

Yes, there is a dangerous Triad Operation right next door to the Burkett Mall, so, the A-20 and any of our personnel will NOT go east of Chezney Avenue.  The tank will come down 88th Street from the west, clear anyone guarding the door in the northwest corner of the mall, blast open that door with the 30mm autocannon and put a LATGM in the building. The six assault troops will dismount and rush inside 2 by 2.  After taking the NW door, charges are to be placed on the two small doors to the back halls.  The security room and stairs down must be secured.  One pair will stand down the VDB's coming up the length of the mall from the south.  Each will have a ballistic tower shield. The second pair will available to hold the main door & stairs as well as provide fire support in both directions, while the last pair sweeps the food court area of juvies (making them run, not killing them).  When this is accomplished then two pairs will sweep and clear to the south and the last pair will be on overwatch.

Meanwhile the tank will move around to cover the south entrance at a distance while drones search for any mobilizing threat in the neighborhood.  When moving to the south inside the mall, there is the XXX Experience, an erotic brain dance parlor, that is run by a female juvie gang.  Try not to kill them.  They won't run, this is their home and livelihood, so just flash bang them.  

As far as Chubby Chuck, that drug dealer who runs Dope 4 Dopes, well, Suzy will tell you she isn't a fan of him either, so what ever happens.....   

It is too late for a paint job on the A-20, but Suzy likes the idea of a Dacian Wolf logo.  The armor isn't Matte Black as that would stand out too much in the day.  If the city fathers and the Feds authorize an all out effort against the Voodoo Boyz, then, yes, definitely we should use our Whyte Hat logos, it pays to advertise!  (If you aren't going to face felony charge afterwards that is.)

As to weapons with the tower shields, if it has a concealablity of Long Coat or less, then it can be fired one handed with the shield rest at little, if any, penalty.  You still need the strength to shoot.  Yes, all sorts of grenade vests and bandoliers are available, but most are on the torso which could receive a lot of bullet hits. 

Well, we don't want to destroy the whole place, but the only businesses here are criminal enterprises, so ......

        

Well, when you get down to game mechanics, regardless of actual kg., I declared you needed to make a 20 on the demolitions roll to make them shaped charges that would take down the door.  The Team chose to make 3 and not 6.  Angel didn't make his roll.  Mitzi chose to use her skill to assist for a +2, therefore she owns Angel's roll too.  There are a couple of characters with Demolitions 2, they could have assisted and add a +2 leaving the second demo expert to check his work.  Knowledge for next time.

More importantly is where to go from here.  You did kick the front door of their HQ in and made them run.  Since you had already penetrated two layers of their defenses when your bomb went off, the Voodoo Boyz move was to run.  The C.I.A. anticipated a possible hidden escape exit and were waiting there.  2/3 of the assembled gang leaders (2 Damballah and six other minor leaders escaped along with about 1/3 of the defenders (guarding the south entrance) in armored vans from the warehouse above.  1 Damballah leader and four other higher ranking gangers fled through the escape tunnel and into Officer Suarez and Suzy.  Those two were suppressing the outer jamming field of the Voodoo Boyz.  When the attack went off, a second ECM field went up to envelop the headquarters.  The Battle Mapper on high power created a bubble that opened communications within the complex, but Suzy and Teresa were cut off.  The five Voodoo Boyz came out of the escape tunnel.  The Damballah leader was bagged and tagged, while two of the others were killed and the remaining two critically wounded.  These wounded fled back down the tunnel and into the HQ, but the Team had left by then.

When Officer Suaréz found out what happened to you, she contacted Major Karl Schrader from the North Oak military base.  He sends a Military Police / Special Forces Team to the warehouse and cleans it out.  This is where the Voodoo Boyz developed the 'Blue Goo'.  In the store room (which you didn't even attempt to look at the door) off the main room, which you did take was most all of the gang's storage of chemicals to make the goo.  That inner store room was 90% of the completed Mark VII version of the drug.  Now it is owned by the US military; more importantly, the Voodoo Boyz don't have it (well, they have a good supply for themselves).

So we ended on Sunday, June 18th.  By that evening, Suzy will call a meeting to report on what she has learned about the recent fighting.  Please understand there is fighting going on throughout the entire city.  The NCPD is besieged inside their West Beach precinct and NCART Station.  The Erzulie Set has fled the area of NCU since the bombing of the student party nearby.  In the NCART system, the A line is closed south of Central City, but open going north of the Central City; the B Line is completely open;  the C Line is open south of the 163rd (133rd) Street Station, but closed north of there.  There is a police advisory not to drive on the Interstate 16 Loop as vehicles are being fired upon.   Mitzi is down and out for a while, so Suzy is stepping up.  She will tell he assembled Team that a full scale war is now on. only the city fathers, the Feds along with NorCal and SoCal are arguing justification.  Suzy thinks its only a matter of a few days before the "government flacks get their heads out of their asses" (her words) and call on them to officially help put the Voodoo Boyz down. 

In anticipation of this, Angel needs to make sure the Team's armor is repaired (and I assume that work is already underway).  Samantha and Valerie will begin aerial surveillance of the Burkett Mall immediately.  Cossack and Mouse are to get the re-built A-20 Panzer loaded with ordinance and fuel immediately.  Monday and Tuesdays will have at least half the day spent practicing dismounting 6 infantry from the vehicle.  Suzy is contemplating an all out attack on the Burkett Mall.  The basic idea is that Cossack (with Mouse and maybe Angel) will drive an assault team in full EMA-1 gear and assault one of the main doors.  That Team will be: 8-Ball, Crusher, Fawkes, Jamal, Jake and Suzy.  The Team also needs to possibly buy some (tower-sized) ballistic shields for this operation.  Basically, Cossack uses the panzer to blow a hole in the NW door of the mall.  The assault team enters, takes the stairway down and them sweeps and clears the building.  Scare away the juvies, kill the Voodoo Boyz.  Regardless, the local police are banned from going west of Boswell Ave.  They aren't going to come to the Voodoo Boyz rescue.  

Now as far as the plans go, I will post a map or two if everyone is on-board with this.  Suzy will reluctantly admit that she robbed this mall a few times in her teenage years, when she belonged to the Happy Time Gang.  Yes, those guys that Marco Baronti had killed a few years back.  Anyway, she is really familiar with the place.

 

Casualties in the City        

Civilians (in Central City): 8 NCU students are killed and 21 wounded in blast along with 2 employees killed and 5 wounded killed by Voodoo Boyz (?) thinking it was the Team there. 

Civilians (In West Beach):  34 killed or seriously+ wounded

Police (in drug raids):  5 wounded; 2 critically wounded

Police (In West Beach):  2 killed, 6 wounded, 3 critically wounded

Voodoo Boyz (out of 102 gang members): 19 killed, 7 wounded, 2 critically wounded, 6 captured

Due to the compartmentalized structure of the Voodoo Boyz sets, they are NOT disheartened, but feel empowered.  Yes, surprise attacks made their leadership scatter temporarily (one captured) and both the ZACA and LEGBA Sets have been badly hit, but the gang has a victory in West Beach where they have (for now) limited the cops to their precinct and succeeded in fouling up transportation in the city. 

The War is on!

                 

Possibly, but someone with a lesser skill level of at least 2 or 3 less, isn't a good judge of a superior's work.  If we are talking about building the 'door buster' charges, the mistake was not making six charges when you had the materials for it.  I set the limit of three charges per roll so each of the demo people (Mitzi and Angel) would get their own roll and assist on each others.  Even if you didn't use all six, those perpared shaped charges would come in handy some day. 

Still, you all did just fine.  I will have a basic update in a couple of days.

Seems like a good plan here.  As far as the Chrome Berets go, Sarge says he can't send anyone who is an auxiliary NCPD, but he can supply you with a competent driver and a couple of people to form your DECON team.  He will handle the training, but you are welcome to check them out.  Also, a few days before jump off, Crusher comes to the Team and has figured out that something big is coming.  He wants in and has resigned from the NCPD Auxiliary and South Beach Security has him on furlough.  The Team saved him and his sisters and he will NOT be denied!  Mitzi can outfit him with a suit of EMA-1 softshell, FN-RAL and handgun.  (This will be Mikael's second character to run, since Angel is in a support role.)  Each of your two man teams is now run by one player.  Jake will act as protection for the support team and move up if something goes really bad.

Now, the bad news; Mitzi can't get any explosives in the time allotted from anyone who wouldn't sell her out.  Angel can make guncotton, but lacks the full chemistry lab necessary for larger boom - booms.  You can use your C-6 or Indonesian plastique, if you want.    

And sorry, the Ragnarok is still experimental; 2020 tech only.  ☹️

Just a quick response here.

Explosives:  Have a talk with Mitzi.  Her specialty isn't in explosives, but her contacts could help here. 

Thermite:  Ask for roll for Angel when we start on Saturday.  He has had time to examine the map and limited footage available.  The restart is on (game date) June 14th, so there will be two weeks to deal with this but I want to do this on a meta level.

The RPG:  Yes, Angel did study these warheads and he figured that if you botch the shot, then there is a 50% chance that it will explode in the 'tube'.  So, there is a 5% chance (a little less if you are skilled in Heavy Weapons) of the warhead detonating prematurely.   

The Assault Team & NBC protection:  Well, that is mostly a player choice, but I assume that Mitzi, Jamal, Jake, Cossack, Fawkes, Angel and 8-Ball are in for sure.  Rue is available but that is up for Team discussion.  Samantha will be doing some NET and drone support from home.  Suzy will be helping her, but will be closer to the Central City than home.  

Decon Station:  You will have to talk to the Chrome Berets, but if you include them, then they become a target for retribution from the Voodoo Boyz if this is discovered.  The Baron Samedi Set are very good at ferreting things out.  Also, some on the Chrome Berets are serving as auxiliary Night City Police (Sarge and Crusher for sure) in their employment with South Beach Security.  The underground HQ you will be attacking is located just SW of Central City and nowhere near where you have any connections so, as GM, I can't help you with that.

    

Yes, finding lots of bodies with the Team's signature ammunition will point the finger at you, so maybe using a FN-RAL might be a good choice.  You might want to consider that those Chinese knock-offs (assault rifles) you have could be identified at coming from that gang, which might lead back to you.  The Indonesian plastique you have is 'game standard'.  However, it was used by the Indonesians in the bomb at the apartment and set off by you kicking the door in.  NCPD did investigate it and has a sample of the residue that can be used for analysis of future explosions.  I am not saying that these connections will be made for sure (or even if the police will care), but it is something to consider.

In regards to using thermite to destroy the facility, it is a big place, so you will need quite a bit of it.  I'll need some specifics here.   

As to the north corridor and using RPGs, it takes about 25 meters for the grenades to arm themselves so the firer would have to stand all the way back in the alcove north of the four way intersection of the tunnel to be able to arm itself to explode when hitting the door.  That said, you do have a couple of RPG grenades you captured with your launchers that arm themselves after only 5 meters.  However, there is a very small (but worrisome) chance they will detonate when fired.  It is about 18 meters from the four-way intersection to the door, meaning the (RPG) grenade needs to travel another 7 meters into the room to arm itself.  A possible attack using this method could work.  The Militech EMA-1 suits (with M-88 helmets) have NBC protections along with the Special Forces (soft) armor used by Jamal, Fawkes and Suzy.  Jake also has a set of NBC capable armor, although it is not as good as the Special Forces armor, it still has good NBC protection.

If you are going to set up a decontamination station, you need to be more specific on where it is and who is manning it before I can comment.  Possibly a good idea though.  

     

Some interesting ideas here for sure.  I can't comment on the direction of your attack as tat is solely a PC choice.  Yes, you have plenty of explosives (a couple of kilos of leftover C-6, I believe and 20.5 kilos of that Indonesian plastique).  The doors do not appear to be steel, but do look reinforced (they are somewhat thick).  

Ecolocation gear is an interesting choice, but no one has the proper co-processors.  You could get the goggle version, but that only takes care of the Video Imager & the Audio Vox requirements.  Nano Audio Rebuild takes care of the Enhanced Hearing Range requirement, if you don't have Cyber Audio.  Of course you will need an empty Interface Plug to connect with your Neural Processor.  Angel could possibly integrate them into some of your armor set-ups, but probably not the M-88A1 Helmets you use with the Militech EMA-1 Softshell armor without a time period of study and experimentation that you DON'T have.  It is an interesting thought, as long as the Voodo Boyz defend their meeting with some White Noise generators.  

As to the number of possible opponents, well, this is an important meeting, so being ready for ~40 is probably a good idea.  This is much more than just a booster gang now.  They have metastasized like a cancer throughout Night City.  NCPD, the Night City University police (the Maxxes) and a number of other Law Enforcement groups have been trying to take them out for years and failed.  These aren't the Trash Chippers, so don't underestimate them.

Yes, many of the containers in the rooms are marked with (mostly) biohazard and (some) radiation warnings.  None of these look new, so you can't tell what is in them.  Again, the drone surveillance has been from some small drains and air circulation ducts, many of which are now blocked.  It is almost like they are getting ready for war and know you have effective NET Runners who use drones.  They drone video footage isn't clear (or close) enough for Angel to identify what the chemicals might be.   

7 hours ago, senior officer Mikael van Atta said:

Still, breathing in the stuff / fumes of it is strongly advised against.

Wise words here, always, people do work in here on occasion and generally wear masks when they do.

As to blowing the place up before leaving, please remember that there are buildings above this 'rat's warren of bad guys'.  Overusing explosives could bring some unwanted attention.  There isn't enough information at present for an accurate 'Expert: Structural Architecture roll to make an educated guess.  As for making thermite, that would be a snap for Angel, once he has the material.

Lots of interesting ideas here from all!

                

Fawkes' desire to attack from the west is noted.

There has never been surveillance during any type of meeting, since the BARON SAMEDI Set is very thorough in their security sweeps.  The girls didn't want to risk any of their drones being found.  This IS a booster gang and that means cyber.  The distribution sets are less cybered, but the OGUN Set (the warriors) are very heavily cybered as are the BARON SAMEDI.  Some (usually the OGUN) are actually Solos (or have Combat Sense of some sort).  Besides at least one representative of all of the Voodoo Boy Sets, it is the OGUN and BARON SAMEDI that will be guarding this meeting.  You have already been told that the BARON SAMEDI people have been studying you now for many months.  They are well acquainted with your tactics or at least the ones you have used in the past.  

The doors leading in from the three entry points are reinforced.  The doors on the inside look very sturdy, but are probably not steel.  Most of the information you have is from visual records recorded by your NET Runners' small drones looking from some very small drains the girls found.  Most of these have been plugged up recently.  The hinges are in the inside of the doors and set inside the frame to make shooting them off very difficult.       

Speaking of the coming game session on this Saturday, January 8th, this will be the commencement of the long simmering conflict with the Voodoo Boyz finally breaking into open war.  If you do it right, they may not even figure out it was you all for a week or so.  Yes, it will be the Team that breaks the peace agreement that you have with them, but since you know they are planning to attack you at the NCU graduation party, so what?  Regardless, Samantha and Suzy have been busy with their little drone 'spies' and have gotten a good layout of where the leadership will be meeting to put together their final war plans against you.  While you are striking here, Sergeant Tanque, his gang squad and members of C-SWAT will be raiding the Voodoo Boyz main drug manufacturing and storehouses.  The map below is what your NET Runners have put together of the gang's underground meeting place.  There are three entrances to the complex.  The one at the top of the map (north) leads to a large underground sewer.  There is a hidden door in the wall of the sewer, but you know where it is and how to open it.  The tunnel leading off left side of map (to the west) leads to another sewer with the same hidden door arrangement.  You also know how to open it.  The entrance at the bottom of the map leads into a warehouse that is accessible by the ladder and the elevator on the map.  The warehouse is guarded by heavily armed private security.  This warehouse is owned by the Voodoo Boyz through a number of holding companies, but that isn't possible to legally prove, so going to the NCPD will just tip off the gang.  Your NET Runners don't think this company knows who they work for, but also don't think they would care if they knew.  Still they are a legal company doing a legal work so engaging them in combat could bring up a lot of questions you don't want to answer.    

     

The large main room in the center has some storage and some laboratory equipment.  The gang does some work here but it isn't a manufacturing facility.  The meeting room is to the east (right) of the main room and is surrounding by quarters that the leadership sometimes uses.  There are two small laboratories to the south of the two main rooms and a small barracks that isn't often used between there and the entrance to the warehouse above.  The opposition is expected to number about 20+, but there is no way to tell exactly.  

Samantha and Suzy will have to pull back their spy drones a day or two before the meeting since the BARON SAMEDI Set will be doing several comprehensive security sweeps before the meeting.  The girls think they can spoof the electronic defenses for one of the entrances, but not two (or more).  And yes, this facility is always occupied by competent defenders.  You have this map to plan with.  As always I will answer any questions you may have about it.

The Team will strike in the evening of Thursday, June 14th.  Sergeant Richard Tanque and his NCPD will be raiding the drug manufacturing facilities of the ZACA Set at the same time you are attacking here.  The police are unaware of this and it would be best if they didn't know.  If they find out afterwards, it will better to ask for forgiveness than ask permission.  While there is no scale on this map, just look at the chairs and the bed for approximate size.  Above represents a 'hand drawn' map rather than an architect's floorplan.  Have fun plotting!

    

 

We are scheduled to meet this coming Saturday, January 8th.

Although this seems like a short episode, it was not.  Many a (virtual) die was thrown and a lot of 'toons' met their end! 

 

 

 

Episode 30 - The Battle for the Plymouth Tower

 

 

The Trash Chippers now know they are under attack and try to rally a defense of their tower.  The Team relentlessly moves forward clearing floor after floor.  However, on each floor resistance is stiffening as the gang gets organized, armed and into their armor.  The Team secures two of the six laboratories they need and are moving on the old Special Projects Lab, when they meet one of the ‘Special Projects’ which sends them into retreat.

 

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

Trash Chippers [A rave-turned-booster gang]:  They occupy Raven Micro Cybernetics’ old Plymouth Office Tower in Detroit.

 

The Action

Monday, September 26, 2072:

The Team sets up in the stairwell to clear the 26^th Floor.  Samantha accesses one of the cameras in the first room and informs the Team that a Trash Chipper in metal gear with a shotgun at the ready is hiding in the northeast corner of the room behind wall around the western Executive elevator shaft that doesn’t have an access door on to this floor.  He is remaining hidden.  Hollow pulls out a HE grenade to deal with him.  Rue says she has a flash-bang loaded in her 40mm grenade launcher underslung on her rifle.  There is some concern that the flash-bang might just bounce of the wall, back to them or not even arm itself in time, so they go with Hollow’s suggestion.  He drops the grenade accurately, but doesn’t kill the ganger, who looks around the corner and shoots Hollow twice in return.  The first shot hits a leg, but for only a single point of impact.  The second is a minor head hit for another point of impact.  Fortunately, Hollow is wearing the Militech EMA-1 armor and  helmet. 

[GM Notes:  Below is the floorplan given to the Team of the Management Levels of the Plymouth Office Tower by Raven Micro Cybernetics.  Under that is what the Team found as they cleared those levels.  The entrance to the stairwell (lower right (SE) has a door that is closed.  The two bathrooms at the opposite end of the building also have doors.  There were no doors on the six smaller offices on the north and south walls.  The Trash Chippers hung heavy cloth-like curtains in those six entrance ways.]

 

 

The next round Hollow steps out so he can see the Trash Chipper and fires 30 rounds from his FN-RAL scoring 9 hits.  This cripples the ganger’s cyberleg but doesn’t bring him to the floor as he leans against the wall to stay upright.  Another ganger comes around the center wall right into Rue’s prepared line of fire.  She fires 15 rounds at the new enemy.  This destroys his cyberarm, so he drops his assault rifle.  The rest of the shots drive him down to 38 damage.  He dies quickly.  Cossack moves into the room and engages another Trash Chipper coming towards the sound of gunfire.  The Ukrainian cuts him down.  Fawkes reloads as he moves onto the floor.  Rue moves forward to cover any more enemy coming towards them. 

With the opposition awake, the Team moves down the hall checking each bedroom (former management offices).  A bit over half of the rooms are occupied, but the half asleep gangers haven’t had time to get into their armor.  The gang members get off some ineffectual shots as they are at best half dressed.  They fall before the Team’s automatic weapons fire.   When the floor is cleared, everyone runs down to begin clearing the 25^th Floor.  Hollow lags behind and executes the wounded boosters.     

At the door on the 25^th Floor, 8-Ball, Cossack and Jamal are ready there.  Rue and Angel are in the back holding the stairs.  Samantha warns 8-Ball that a booster is in the north east elevator niche with an SMG and hiding something she can’t identify.  Jamal readies a flash bang grenade.  He moves just inside the door, but is hidden by the same elevator shaft wall.  The booster they know about is ready and drops a grenade at their feet.  The Team’s armor absorbs the damage (and is damaged in the process).  The ADAP inserts in Jamal’s armor stiffen which will give him a -3 to his REFLEXES.  This will go away at the rate of -1 per round.  This has the unfortunate effect of making the Navy SEAL’s grenade toss miss badly and bounce back to include him in its area of effect.  Jamal bought some Smartgoggles with anti-dazzle for the mission, so his vision is safe, but the man has no ear protection and is deafened.  The rest of the Team is out of sight and has ear protection. 

8-Ball moves in and takes aim at the niche where he knows the booster is hiding.  This is followed by Cossack who comes around the corner of the room’s center wall from the south.  A booster is waiting in ambush, but facing the wrong way!  The Ukrainian lights him up, but doesn’t kill him.  However, he is so badly wounded the booster misses his return shots.  Cossack finishes him off and 8-Ball moves up to engage the booster hiding in the elevator niche.  The booster is ready, but still firing standard ammunition so his bullets wash off 8-Ball’s Militech EMA-1.  The solo guns him right down. 

Jamal moves to the main hall and exchanges fire with a half prepared ganger.  The enemy’s standard rounds hit, activates the -3 REFLEX again from being hit in so many locations, but no damage goes through.  The Navy SEAL returns fire.  His dual purpose 12mm rounds tears into his ambusher’s unarmored body parts.  Another Trash Chipper steps out from an office / bedroom and fires his shotgun to little effect.  8-Ball then steps into the hall and fires on the closest booster.  One of his 12 hits takes the ganger’s head off.  Cossack opens up on another booster with fifteen rounds and hits with fourteen of them, which kills him.  With all opposition down the Team quickly checks the rest of the floor and heads down to the 24^th Floor. 

At this point, Suzy and Angel have rejoined the main group.  Samantha, who is monitoring the security cameras, warns the Team that two booster have moved out of Level 24 and are waiting for them on the landing.  Also, there are three boosters moving up the stairs from levels 19 to 20 with one heading downstairs from Level 19.  The NET Runner reports another booster moving into the Implant Lab (Level 20).  Jamal tries to slip down the stairs to get a shot off, but he is seen.  The ganger opens up with his assault rifle and hits the Navy SEAL with five rounds.  His armor tuns the damage.  Jamal fires back and hits with twelve rounds from his H&K MPK-20.  The Trash Chipper’s cyberarm is destroyed which forces him to drop his weapon.  This damage drives him to only a single point of damage left.  He makes his death save, but will probably be dead within another 10 seconds.  The second Trash Chipper there falls back through the door into Level 24.

Suzy tells 8-Ball that she and Angel will make their way to the Computer Laboratory on Level 23 to start to secure that room and the gear they have come for.  The solo asks if that level is cleared and both Samantha and Suzy assure her that their drones have cleared it.  The NET Runner and techie enter the computer center and find two dead Trash Chippers inside.  There is one robotic spider in an ambush position by the main door to the floor and the second is waiting above the (north) elevator doors in case someone enters from there.  Suzy has Angel unpack the containers for the computer cores and memory banks from the supplies and she gets to work on the computers.

Outside the door to the 24^th Floor, the Cossack, 8-Ball and Jamal line up to begin their clearing of that level.  Samantha warns them that there is a Trash Chipper in ambush position in the northeast elevator niche, like on the previous two levels.  Rue and Fawkes are still on their way downstairs.  The three decide not to wait to strike.  Jamal uses 8-Ball’s snake camera to look under the door and notices that the Trash Chippers have rigged the door with a claymore mine!  The Team repositions itself.  Samantha and Suzy report that they have destroyed the computer on the first level and shut off all power below the 18^th Floor.  The two don’t mention that they also killed the NET Runner on duty down there.  These two have been busy while the rest of the Team has been clearing the various floors.  Samantha also reports she can only see booster on Level 22, the Nano Lab and he is again hiding in the elevator niche on the northeast corner of that floor. 

8-Ball sets Fawkes in an ambush position to watch the door to the 24^th Floor and the rest of the Team heads downstairs towards the Nano Lab and the boosters coming up from the lower floors.  8-Ball is in the lead and meets a ganger in metal gear coming up the stairs.  The solo fires first with a ten round burst and hits with nine of them.  The ganger is shot dead.   Jamal moves up past 8-Ball and is shot by the next ganger in line.  The Navy SEAL is hit with 10 rounds.  He suffers only a couple of points of damage as the gang is still shooting standard ammo.  The Trash Chipper realizes this and shouts to his comrades below to switch to AP ammunition.  Jamal returns fire, but doesn’t drop him.  This allows another Trash Chipper to close and attack. Jamal dodges the blow.  8-Ball moves forward to support Jamal and kills a third Trash Chipper while only taking a minor hit or two.  This gets the two Team members to the door of the Nano Lab where they stop for more of the Team to reach them.  Jamal keeps an eye on the stairs down while 8-Ball watches the door to the 22^nd Floor. 

Rue, Cossack and Hollow join Fawkes outside the door to the 24^th Floor.  They put a door buster charge on the entrance and then get back out of the blast area.  The C-6 charge  blows the door off the hinges and detonates the claymore.  Cossack leads the rush in, where he is shot by a man with a Kalashnikov A-80; eight rounds hit.  With his Militech EMA-1 armor (and some cover) he shrugs all but two damage points.  Cossack guns the man right down in return.  The other three Team members sweep onto the floor.  Hollow gets ambushed by a ganger with a medium submachinegun.  The bullets wash off the man’s armor, who cuts down the ambusher.  The gangers also take up the cry, “Switch to AP ammunition!”

This doesn’t help Fawkes’ next target as he dies under a hail of gunfire from the former Special Forces operator.  The Team moves into each room one at a time.  There is the occasional ganger waiting to attack, but their weapons do only a point or two of damage, both lethal and impact.  Each of the enemy is gunned down quickly by the Team.  The gangers appear to be well armed, but lack the skill to use their guns very effectively.  That part of the Team finishes clearing the 24^th Floor and starts to move downstairs.  Samantha reports more gangers coming up the stairway and gathering outside the Special Projects Lab (Level 21).  Suzy and Angel are busy working in the Computer Laboratory (Level 23).  Much of the Team (8-Ball, Cossack, Fawkes, Jamal, Rue and Hollow gather in the stairwell near the door to the Nano Lab.  The Trash Chippers are ready on the 21^st to 22^nd Level stairway in a strong defensive position.

8-Ball decides they will secure the Nano Lab before heading down.  Fawkes moves down the stairs to make sure no one comes up.  Unfortunately, the gang anticipated this and the Team member is shot by an enemy with a Kalashnikov A-80.  The gang is now shooting AP so the damage is tremendous.  He is blown into mortal, but manages to stay awake and alive (for now).  Fawkes returns fire with his FN-RAL killing his opponent and calling for a medic.  At the Nano Lab, the Team prepares a charge on the door.  Jamal answers the call for a medic from Fawkes.  8-Ball calls for Fawkes to fall back, but the man refuses.  Precious time passes as they argue.  Finally, 8-Ball sets off the charge and successfully blows the door open.  He rushes in followed by Hollow.  8-Ball is ambushed by a man in cover with a shotgun, who gets one hit.  The solo returns fire but doesn’t do much damage.  Hollow then lights the man up and finishes him off.  8-Ball sets Hollow the task of searching the laboratory while the others head downstairs to where Fawkes and Jamal are.                           

Fawkes and Jamal hear the door of the Special Projects Laboratory open and the stairwell shake as heavy mechanical footfalls enter the stairwell and start up the stairs.  The two party members immediately retreat up the stairs.  Samantha yells over the radio, “What the fuck is that!”

Rue heads upstairs to the Computer Center.  The others quickly move to the door to the Nano Laboratory to intercept the incoming attack.   The Fawkes and Jamal fall back inside the door of the Nano Lab, when something that can only be described as a gigantic ‘Frankenborg’ comes into view and through the door.  8-Ball fires 10 rounds at this monstrosity, but only hits with 8.  Most of the shots just wash off.  Cossack fires all thirty rounds from his FN-RAL at this thing and hits with 28!  Again, the damage mostly just washes off.  Fortunately, this atrocity doesn’t move very fast.  Fawkes, who no longer has the speed to escape moves last.  He steps into point black range and empties what’s left of his magazine for 8 (maximum damage) hits.  The ex-Green Beret shoots one of the ‘Frankenborg’s’ legs off.  That monster falls to the floor.  Jamal grabs Fawkes and pulls him around the corner and out of sight.  A Trash Chipper looks around the corner of the stairwell and is shot dead by Hollow.  The fallen and thrashing ‘borg’ is shot again and again until it stops moving.

8-Ball moves cautiously into the hallway of the stairwell, and finds the remaining gangers have retreated.  Jamal begins to treat Fawkes’ extensive wounds.  Hollow and Cossack move downstairs while 8-Ball changes clips and gathers some grenades.   Samantha informs the Team that the Trash Chipper who retreated has gone into the Special Projects Laboratory, which has no active cameras in it.  Hollow and Cossack wait on the landing just above the Special Projects Lab.  8-Ball will join them after he gathers up Jamal’s grenades.  Jamal breaks out his medical gear and succeeds in stabilizing Fawkes and then gets him on the slow road to recovery.                         

 

 

Next: Episode 31 – The Battle in the Plymouth Tower Continues

 

 

 

Look at this, two back episodes in less than a week!

 

 

 

Episode 29 - On to Detroit

 

 

 

The Team readies itself for its first big corporate job in Detroit.  Jamal is from that city and still has family there.  His brother-in-law is able to find a suitable location for them to set up and gathers some initial intelligence.  Raven Micro Cybernetics flies them out and the Team begins its own surveillance of their target office tower.  Much of this is done by Samantha and Suzy who possess a large number of small drones.  They learn that the gang there is larger and more heavily armed than Raven realized, but they still think the job is doable.  With help from Udo, Jamal’s brother-in-law the find a way into the building through a now unused water main and get to the top of the building.  From there they plan to fight their way down to the target floors to retrieve Raven’s property.

 

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 team 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

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 since then. 

Linda Johnson (Billy Ray’s girlfriend) [Gang Rank 2]:  She is one of the women the Team freed from Storm Hold.

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. 

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

Saturday, September 17, 2072:

The Team holds a meeting to discuss Detroit Job.  Fawkes points out that he will need something more than the pistol he owns.  He would like an assault rifle if that could be obtained for him.  Angel has the same issue, but he doesn’t even have a handgun.  The weaponsmith wants to pick up a Mustang Arms Mk. II, so he will go down to the San Paulo Gun Shoppe later.  This leads to a discussion of getting weapons with a uniform caliber.  The Team narrows the question down to two: 7.62mm or the 6.5 hybrid.

They will be departing on Wednesday, September 21^st.  Jamal has spoken to his family in Detroit and they have found a half empty industrial building within one block of the combat zone wall near Raven Micro Cybernetics’ old Plymouth Office Tower.  This industrial building can see over the wall and has a view of the northern and western faces of the target office tower.  There is garage space on the first floor, a service elevator to the upper floors and enough rooms to set up quarters and storage for the Team and the gear.  Mitzi goes ahead and rents this building for the Team.  Jamal's family has learned some more things.  This is their first report:  The gang that is occupying it are called the Trash Chippers.  Yes, they used to be a party / rave type gang as Raven Micro Cybernetics has described.  Well, since this gang have defeated two other Teams trying this same mission there must be something more to this.  The Trash Chippers have become much more violent of late since moving into the abandoned Plymouth Office Tower.  Their numbers are somewhere north of fifty members with more people who are described as "hangers-on" and / or slaves.  While they are using torches for light at night in places, there are reports that they have some electricity in the building.  The cross hatched construction covering part of the roof has been identified as a huge (or many small interconnected) solar panels.  This gang reportedly has become a clearing house for stolen goods (and possibly slaves).  They have an underground market in the main underground parking garage that is open on Friday afternoons and evenings.  On Saturday nights, they host blood sports in that space.  Attending these can be very dangerous without local contacts. 

Suzy and Samantha have already made a NET run to Detroit.  They also have discovered a few things.  The tower building still has a NET presence, but it is very small now.  They haven't attempted to enter it yet and may make another run before everyone leaves.  Samantha has decided to go with the Team to Detroit, but will remain in the safe (ware)house and do her runs from there.  The two have downloaded schematics of the power, water and sewer lines in the area around the Plymouth Office Tower, sent to them by Udo Harris, Jamal’s brother-in-law.  The tower isn't connected (legally) to the city's electric grid, but is connected to the city's water and sewer system.  The tower has something on one of the roof landing pads and a huge solar panel(s) on top of whatever is covering that AV pad.  This gang does pay their water bill!  It is much smaller than it used to be however.  More importantly, the two have penetrated the city's computer systems and learned that only one of the two water mains heading into the build is being used.  The unused main is large enough to crawl through, but will necessitate a few trips to get all your gear into the building.  Raven Micro Cybernetics’ plans for the building DO NOT include a small access room that abuts the longest elevator shaft on the building’s west wall that was installed later at the city's expense.  There is a sealed access door between that small room and the bottom of the executive elevator shaft [#3] down in Sub Level B.  It is locked from the inside, but a small portable blowtorch should be able to open it.  There is the added advantage that the elevator itself can't go down to this sub-basement as two large steel I-beams were installed to block a falling elevator from smashing the water pipes that go to the lowest sub-basement.    

The Team will fly out on Wednesday, September 21st in the morning.  This will give the Team nine days to finish the mission.  The preliminary plan is to spend a few days in Detroit gathering more intelligence on the gang and the building.  Suzy and Samantha will use their drones to penetrate the office towers to get some idea of the current insides and attempt to get into the two computer systems they have detected.  Suzy wants to attempt a preliminary intrusion with maybe one or two VERY stealth people on Friday night to make sure that this type of entry can be done.  Everyone else should do their full Team intrusion on Saturday evening during the blood sport fights and hope this covers any noise you might make heading up to the roof.  Coming in from the top will make it only 15 floors you have to clear.  Suzy suggests that they enter the building through the unused water main and break through the one way door elevator shaft #3 (executive).  From there they should climb up to the roof and begin their assault from there very early morning.  The Team should divide into three groups: an Assault Team consisting of 8-Ball, Cossack and Hollow in heavy armor; a Stealth Team of Fawkes, Jamal and Suzy and a tech team of Rue and Angel.  Mitzi and Jake will remain in Night City.  The assault and stealth teams will strike simultaneously on levels 32 and 31 and then continue to strike at alternate floors until they reach the 28^th Floor (executive dining) or the alarm is set off.  This dining floor is as high as elevator shaft #2 (north side of building) opens.  From there, the Assault Team will clear the floors down to the 18^th Floor (the last laboratory level).  However, that group will be reinforced by Jamal and Fawkes with Suzy joining the Tech Team.   The attack stops on the 18^th Floor and the Team’s combat elements will hold off any counterattack up the stairs or elevator shafts.  The Tech Team will be gathering all the equipment and gear they have been sent for.  Once everything is on the roof, the Team will call for retrieval.   This plan means the Team will (hopefully) be able to call for retrieval on Monday morning and maybe even home in Night City by mid-night on that Monday.

There is some concern about the quality of armor.  Mitzi decides to buy three sets of Militech EMA-1 Softshell with the M-88A2 Enhanced Helmets for the Assault Team.  The Stealth Team all have high tech US Special Forces armor with ADAP inserts, so they are confident with those.  Angel points out he has NO rifle skill.  He can make them, but really doesn’t know how to use them.  Mitzi sends him to the Scholar Teaching system to learn Rifle Skill 2.  She also tells everyone that all the weapons will need suppressors.  If they don’t have one, then they must turn their weapons over to Angel so he can manufacture them.         

Mitzi realizes that they are running low on explosives so she puts some more C-6 and det cord on her shopping list.  Although she won’t be there, Angel is a skilled demolition expert.  They want to bring enough to blow out a few of the stairs to forestall any gang counterattack while they are moving Raven’s gear to the roof. 

The Team’s techies get to work on designing a couple of collapsible dollies to move the Team’s gear down the water main and then use these to move Raven Micro Cybernetics gear to the roof. 

8-Ball asks Mitzi to ask the people at Raven about the ‘slaves’ that might be being held in the Plymouth Office Tower.  Does that corporation want to have the Team publicly make an effort to free any ‘slaves’ as a cover for this equipment retrieval.  Suzy laughs derisively as she has no faith in corporate good will.  Mitzi says she will give Raven a call.  The Team then goes through any equipment they will need such as armored backpacks and making sure everyone has some kind of night vision and arranges to acquire the items.  Angel goes down to the basement for  his first Teacher lesson in the Rifle skill.  After this he starts working on silencers for Team

***              

 

Sunday, September 18, 2072:

Angel gets his confirmation on his Teacher lesson for Rife and now has Rifle 1.  He continues work on the Team’s silencers.  Cossack gets to work on building two carts to move their gear through the water main and move things once inside the Plymouth Office Tower.  Jamal goes out to the Southland Mall to pick up some Smartgoggles and some ear protection. 

Mitzi meets her contact at Raven Micro Cybernetics and asks, “We have heard there might be slaves being held in your old officer tower.  Should we make provisions to get them out of there?”

The executive asks, “Why?”

“Because slavery is a bad thing and it’s not good to kill unarmed people or leave them to be killed,” she replies.

There is silence from the executive before he says, “So, this is a just a rumor?  Look if you want to be a hero, do it on your own time.”

Clearly, Raven Micro Cybernetics doesn’t give a shit! (no surprise there!)

*** 

 

Monday, September 19, 2072:

Angel sets up on the Scholar and gets his second initial lesson for Rifle 2.  8-Ball gets more work done on Chrome Berets HQ.  Cossack goes over to Suzy’s garage to start work on the corporate van.  While working the Ukrainian asks Mouse if he could possibly make him some spurs that he could get to be silent if he clicks his heels together.  The ganger tech says he will look into it, but he is actually at a loss on how to make something like that.  Cossack then gets to work on the van by sorting the pieces of the wreck.   

***

 

Tuesday, September 20, 2072

Angel gets on the Scholar and his confirmation of his Rifle 2.  8-Ball again gets more work done on Chrome Berets HQ.  Cossack goes over to Suzy’s garage and finishes sorting through the wreckage and makes note of the parts he will need to rebuild the corporate van.  The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons from 4pm to 8 pm, and are joined by Samantha.  The NET Runner has realized that being around this group could be dangerous to her health so she will take up Jake’s offer for free Martial Arts lessons.  She has a bit of a starting advantage as she has a good knowledge of Japanese (Level 4) already. 

***

 

Wednesday, September 21, 2072:

Team flies out in the afternoon to Detroit on a Raven Micro Cybernetics jet and lands at a private airport outside the city.  A large van is waiting for them to take them to the warehouse that Jamal’s brother-in-law, Udo Harris, has rented for them near the wall around the Combat Zone where the Plymouth Tower is now located.  The Team moves their gear in and then gets more information from Jamal’s brother-in-law.  On Friday nights the Trash Chippers hold a giant flea market style fair in the underground parking lot of the office tower.  While this is open to the public, it can be very dangerous if they don’t know you.  On Saturday night the gang holds public Blood Sports in that location.  That is easier to get in to see, but he wouldn’t suggest it. 

Another bit of information that Udo has learned is that while the Trash Chippers used to be more of a party gang, rumor has it that some mysterious patron led them to the Plymouth Office Tower.  Since then, the gang has been getting more violent and dangerous.  He feels this gang is becoming more in line with a well-organized booster gang.  8-Ball asks if this gang has been showing up with more cyberware.  Udo doesn’t know since he doesn’t go near there.  Also, he has learned that the Trash Chippers mostly live on the upper floors, while the lower floors have non-gangers.  Samantha and Suzy start unpacking their many drones.  Some has thermographic sensors so that should give them information about any serious cyberware that the gang members might be packing now.  Since Samantha will be running drones from here during the actual assault, the Team doesn’t want her to be alone.  Udo says he has a couple of trustworthy friends with good fighting skills to watch over her.  He is told to hire them. 

The Team settle down in their new digs.  Small surveillance cameras are set up to watch the Plymouth Office Tower.  Samantha and Suzy break out some small flying drones and begin their personal surveillance at range of their target building. 

***

 

Thursday, September 22, 2072:

Udo has found an Info Broker who does know the area.  He can’t guarantee the man’s reliability, so the Team passes on speaking to this fixer.  Udo takes Jamal and  8-Ball on a tour of the wall surrounding the combat zone.  He shows them several places where the zone can be entered easily.  In the early afternoon, the rest of the equipment the Team ordered arrives.  This primarily is the Militech EMA-1 armor with matching helmets.  Everyone checks out their gear and, while 8-Ball, Hollow and Cossack work with the new suits of armor, Samantha and Suzy straighten out the Team’s communications gear and make sure everyone is on the proper channel.  The two are interested in who has Times Square or Video Imager for some reason. 

That night both Samantha and Suzy launch a number of small drone missions.  They have found a route for their Bell Minibees to deliver some Microtech Scorpion Remotes and Grid Bugs unseen to the top of the elevator house on the roof of the Plymouth Office Tower.  These remotes also deliver a small, directional microwave transmitter / receiver to improve their communications with their remotes.  With that in place, the NET Runners begin to explore the building through the various small pipes and ducts to gather intelligence.       

***

 

Friday, September 23, 2072:

In the morning the two NET Runners have information for the Team.  The target building has two small NETs.  One is centered in the computer laboratories and is a closed system.  The cameras on the roof are on that system.  The girls have used their drones to cut into the wiring of the upper level NET.  From their explorations they have learned that many of the stairway cameras are still working and they can access them.  They have no access to anything on the 32^nd Floor down to Level 29.  Some of the cameras on Level 28 (Executive dining) are still working but are now set to watch the elevator and stairway doors.  On Level 24 to 27, many of the cameras are working.  These floors have been converted from offices to living quarters.  Level 23 (the Computer Laboratory), has all its cameras working and hasn’t been altered.  There is someone on duty (probably a NET Runner) on the main console and another heavily cybered individual who is clearly a guard of some sort.  The Nano Laboratory on Level 22 also looks fully operational.  The Special Projects Laboratory on Level 21 has no operational cameras.  However, the Levels 19 & 20 (the Cyberlimb and Implant Laboratories) also look fully operational and unchanged.  The Fashionware Laboratory on Level 19 also has no operational cameras, so they have no information.  Below this level they can only see the main stairwell down to Level 10.  This is the end of the smaller private NET.    

The other NET is (probably) on the first floor and the girls have been able to enter it easily as it has some wireless connections.  This lower system has access to the building’s security cameras from the 9^th Floor down.  Only about half of the original cameras are still operational.  There appear to be just normal street scum living here.  The gangers aren’t too cruel to these people who are very respectful to the Trash Chippers.  Levels 2 through 9 look like workshops where people are working continuously refurbishing stolen gear and equipment.  The ground floor has a heavily armed gang presence.  The first Team that entered here didn’t have a chance.  Below ground there is only one camera in its original location.  The others have been moved to watch the large underground parking lot.  There are no operational cameras they can detect on Sub Levels A or B.  Both of these small NETs are constantly monitored, but the girls don’t think they are very attentive. 

The two NET Runners have made an interesting discovery.  The two elevator shafts on the north side of the building are both operational.  One only goes up to level 10 and the other goes up to Level 28, but that one doesn’t open on the lower floors.  The one of executive elevators on the east side of the building has crashed to the bottom and no longer works.  The remaining one is operational, but the doors have been welded shut on all the lower floors where they actually open.  Apparently the gang has some ‘trust issues’.    

Today the two NET Runners plan to begin to use their remotes to tap into the camera and computer controls.  They spent the last part of the evening getting new battery packs for the small drones. 

Cossack asks about the roof’s anti-aircraft guns.  Actually, they are computer controlled so the two have hacked into the control wires.  One of the guns isn’t even real.  Apparently the gang moved one to the ground level to help defend the main entrance to the building.  8-Ball has carefully looked at the Trash Chippers through the various visions used by the drones.  He concludes that this isn’t any type of party or rave gang, but are clearly heavily modified boosters.  They are well armed and run constant and regularly scheduled patrols.  These patrols are fewer late at night.      

The Stealth Team (Fawkes, Jamal and Suzy) will attempt to find the water main in the sewer and make entrance into the east elevator shaft in the sub-basement of tower that night.  The three easily find the water main and cut into it.  It is messy.  Suzy just wears her armored coveralls and shimmies down the pipe dragging a line attached to one of the small carts that Cossack has made.  In that outer room against the wall of the elevator shaft, she is able to pull Fawkes through proving the concept.  The two then use the cutting torch to cut through the locked access door and make it to the bottom of that elevator shaft.  The Trash Chippers haven’t set up any defenses against this type of intrusion.  Suzy collects one of her drones at the bottom of the shaft.  It had run out of power on its exploration.  The two then set the door back up with a small spot weld and return down the water main.  They leave the cart and pull lines in place before sealing up the water main.  The three return to the warehouse.             

***

 

Saturday, September 24, 2072:

In the day the Stealth Team again makes an entry into the building’s basement in their full combat gear.  Fortunately, there is a lot of noise from the blood sports going on in the underground parking area.  The three then climb up the elevator shaft up to the small machinery building on the roof.  It is cramped but the three do have room to work.  Suzy releases a couple of small drones that she and Samantha control.  The NET Runner replaces the batteries in a few that didn’t have the power to return.  She then begins tapping into various electronic junctions to assist in taking over the building.  Suzy sends one of her small drones to look under the solar cells covering something on one of the AV pads on the roof.  She discovers it is a jury rigged collection of batteries used to store the electric power used to power parts of the building at night.  The NET Runner locates the control junctions and realizes she can now control the flow of power to the rest of the building; or cut it off completely. 

Back at the warehouse, 8-Ball has been carefully watching the gang’s guard rotation.  He notices that no one walks on the 40 meters of (dead) grass surrounding the tower.  Entrance to the tower is made along a clearly defined path to the main front door.  The solo assumes (correctly) that any other route across the lawn is probably trapped.  A good defensive set up, but useless against the Team’s plan of attack.  In the afternoon, two friends of Udo show up to protect Samantha while she is in the NET during the assault. 

That evening the Assault Team with Rue and Angel move through the sewer to the water main and use the rig set up by the Stealth Group to move themselves, their armor and all the equipment necessary to ‘loot’ the tower.  It takes several hours for them to get inside and make the long climb up to the roof.  This is all occurring while the Saturday night bloodsports are being held so any noise the Team makes gets drowned out by the screaming audience.  The Team is packed in at the top of the elevator shaft and settles down to wait for tomorrow or rather very early Monday morning. 

***

 

Sunday, September 25, 2072:

Everyone spends most of the day resting and preparing for tomorrow night.  The Team passes around a couple of sleep inducers so everyone will be relatively fresh for the assault.

***

 

Monday, September 26, 2072:

After midnight, Suzy opens two small cases and pulls out a pair of robotic spider-like looking things.  One activates and scrabbles down a small duct.  Suzy lays back and goes into the NET.  The second drone activates and follows the first.  Twenty minutes or so passes and the Team hear Samantha say over the comm link, “Oh, shit!  No, wait, we’re good.”

Suzy opens her eyes a minute later and tells the Team that they are ready.  Samantha has full control of the NET on the upper level and the two have looped the roof cameras.  It is time to take out the pair of roof sentries.  Hollow and Cossack fire simultaneously and drop the sentries quietly.  The Assault Team heads to the 32^nd Floor, while the Stealth Team moves to the 31^st Floor and both prepare to clear their floors.  On the roof, Angel places two cameras to look down the side of the south and west sides of the building to watch for any possible movement up the side of the structure.  The two friends of Udo can watch the north and east side from the warehouse.

Samantha is watching the cameras in the stairway and there is no one walking about at this hour.  The Assault Team lines up on the 32^nd Floor, while the Stealth Team moves to the floor below.  8-Ball slides his snake camera under the door to look onto this floor.  It is mostly supposed to be one large room with single office on the east end of the large main room along with two bathrooms.  All of the original furniture is gone.  Instead, there is a collection of battered couches and chairs along with a couple of beds.  There are two figures in a pair of beds and two more awake in chairs.  One of the (awake) gang members is wearing some battered metal gear.  The second is wearing some kind of helmet along with some kind of armor jacket.  The two are talking quietly. 

On the floor below, Suzy uses her snake cam to look under the door.  This floor of executive offices looks a bit different from the original plans.  The wall locations are the same, but again the furniture is now battered and old.  The floor now is apparently being used as quarters for the Trash Chippers.  It is now 2:10 am and the two Teams attack simultaneously.

On the 32^nd Level, 8-Ball enters the room and breaks right while Cossack moves in and breaks left.  They will shoot the two boosters who are awake.  Hollow will follow up.  He will drop any of the awake boosters not killed by the first two shots or try to kill the gangers in their beds.  The first two enemy go right down from the silenced automatic weapons fire.  Hollow riddles (and kills) one of the two sleeping boosters. 

The last sleeping booster wakes up as Hollow then turns his weapon on him and kills that man before he can react.  Cossack runs to check the bathrooms.  8-Ball walks towards the back office.  The three Team members sweep into the room.  Cossack and Hollow enter the small office in the back of the room.  There are two people in there which is now a bedroom.  The male is obviously a gang member and going for a Kalashnikov A-80.  Cossack shoots and kills him.

[GM Note:  Unknown to the Team, Cossack has just killed the leader of the Trash Chippers.]     

The second person in the bed is a naked woman and Hollow just shoots and kills her.  The Assault Team checks all the bathrooms and closets before heading downstairs to the 30^th Floor. 

At the same time the Assault Team jumps off, the Stealth Team enters the 31^st Floor.  Suzy enters in the lead but sees no one in the first room.  She moves quietly to the first office / bedroom and puts a 12mm round into a sleeping ganger’s head killing him instantly.  The three sweep through the floor and find three of the four bedroom / offices occupied by sleeping gangers.  The Stealth Team kills everyone with their silenced weapons.  Fawkes, an ex-Special Forces veteran, is a bit surprised that their ‘college student’ NET Runner, Suzy, is carrying a British Enfield Spitfire pistol.  With this floor cleared, the Stealth Team then heads down to the 29^th Floor.    

8-Ball slips his snake camera under the door leading to the 30^th Floor.  There is a booster in metal gear sitting on a couch in that first room who is awake.  The man has a Sternmeyer Stakeout in hand, which he is checking out.  The solo can’t see the entire room though.  They decide that Cossack, who is the slowest will enter first and shoot the Trash Chipper on the couch.  8-Ball and Hollow will follow up and begin the clear the floor.  One of Cossack’s fourteen shots is a head hit and kills the gang member.  The other two begin their sweep.  The first bedroom / office is empty, but Hollow finds the second occupied.  He fires fifteen rounds at the man in the bed killing him.  The Assault Team finds one more sleeping Trash Chipper who they kill in his bed.  The three finish clearing that level and then head down to the 28^th Floor.

While this is going on Suzy slips her snake camera under the door leading to the 29^th Floor.  She sees on ganger sitting in the corner of the room wearing a light armor jacket.  The NET Runner says she will go first and pulls out a second Enfield Spitfire.  She asks Fawkes to open the door for her and Jamal to follow her in.  When Fawkes opens the door, Suzy steps through and puts four rounds into the ganger killing him instantly.  The others enter the now empty room.  The first two bedrooms are also empty.  Jamal finds a sleeping booster in the third bedroom and puts a bunch of bullets in him killing him.  Fawkes enters the last bedroom and finds a booster waking up.  There is a set of metal gear in the corner, which he ganger probably regrets not having on as the former Special Forces operator puts fifteen rounds in his unarmored body ending him.  With this floor cleared the Stealth Team moves to the stairway. 

Suzy tells them she will remain on the floor as she pulls out her tools and starts working on a panel on the north wall.  It is the entrance to the machinery room of the executive elevator on the north side of the building.  She is going to cut any control cables that lead to the floors below, so Samantha will have complete control of those two elevators.  Fawkes and Jamal will join the Assault Team from here on out.  The five will move into the 28^th Floor (executive dining & gym) with Rue watching the stairs.  When Angel has finished installing the cameras on the roof he will haul the extra equipment down and join Suzy.  The only cameras working on the 28^th Floor are watching the elevator and stairway doors.  Samantha assures everyone that nobody will see them through these cameras.

Fawkes and Cossack move in first and see no one in the gym.  The remaining three move in quietly towards the dining room on the east side of the floor.  8-Ball enters the dining room and sees a Trash Chipper sitting at a table.  The ganger goes for his weapon as 8-Ball lights him up.  This gang member is a heavily armored bad ass and survives.  Hollow intervenes and gets off a 15 round blast at the man.  He hits with all of his bullets.  This puts the total damage to over 40, so he is dead.  Cossack enters the room off the Gym and finds another gang member in bed, but waking up.  Again, the man’s metal gear is sitting across the small room. The Ukrainian shoots him dead.  He then checks the bathrooms which are empty.

8-Ball heads back to the stairs as the other four finish checking all the rooms on the floor.  A careful check finds no one else.  With Level 28 cleared the Team moves down to the 27^th Floor which is the beginning of the management levels.  With the five on the sweeper team at the entrance to the 27^th Floor, 8-Ball uses his snake camera under the door, but can only see an empty bench straight ahead and a wall blocking sight to the rest of the room.  8-Ball enters and moves to the right to check behind the wall.  Cossack moves straight ahead to a position at the east side of the wall.  Fawkes comes in and watches their backs.  Hollow and Jamal come in and back up the two leading sweepers.  Hollow comes around the thin wall dividing this room and is shot by a Trash Chipper on guard who heard them enter.  The ganger fires ten rounds from his Styer AUG, but this Team member’s high reflexes cause the bullets to miss.  The Trash Chipper is screaming and the sounds of the shooting echoes through the floor and most likely a floor or two below at least.  Hollow fires back and tears the ganger to pieces.  With this exchange of gunfire, the Team is sure that the time for stealth is over.  It is about to become a stand up fight.  The Team begins to move down the main hall.  The assume (correctly) that the original offices are now bedrooms for the gang members.  The first six rooms don’t have door, but are covered by thick curtains.  Fawkes moves up to the first room and pulls back the curtain.  There is no one there.  Jamal passes him and looks in the second room which is also empty.  He moves to the next room and looks inside.  Waiting in ambush is a Trash Chipper with a mono katana dressed in his tightie-whities, although they are a bit brown now.  The blade strikes the Navy SEAL’s armor and shatters.  Jamal fires 10 rounds into him at point blank range with his H&K MPK-20.  The ganger is almost cut in half.  Jamal calls out. “Room clear!”

Hollow comes down the hall and enters the fourth room where his attack by a ganger with wolvers.  The Trash Chipper misses.  Hollow puts five rounds of 6.5mm dual purpose from his Militech Dragon into the naked man at point blank range which, of course, kills him instantly.  8-Ball makes it to the next room where he is also ambushed by a ganger in his underwear, who shoots the solo in the face with a drug filled squirt gun.  This, of course, has no effect on his sealed helmet.  8-Ball fires ten rounds and paints the room with the now dead man’s blood.   Jamal runs by the last curtained room to the corner room that has a door.  However, the barrel of an assault rifle sticks out of the curtained room he passed and opens fire.  Unfortunately for the Trash Chipper he misses wildly, but some bullets shatter the window behind the SEAL.  This will definitely alert others in the building.  Jamal turns around and puts 15 rounds into his attacker.  This Trash Chipper did get his armored jacket on, but the rest of his body is torn to pieces and the ganger falls dead.  Fawkes follows the Team and watches their backs. 

8-Ball checks the room that just ambushed Jamal, but everyone in there is dead.  Jamal continues into the corner room with the door.  There is a Trash Chipper waiting in ambush with a cyberflamer in his leg and a pistol in his hand.  Jamal’s armor holds back any damage from the fire, but does light his pants aflame.  The pistol scores a hit, but the SEAL’s armor turns the bullet.  Jamal empties the rest of his magazine (10 rounds) into the man.  Again, the ganger is cut to pieces.  Jamal immediately works to put out his burning pants.  Fawkes has now moved up and enters the ladies room.  He is also ambushed by a naked woman, who tries to smash him in the face with the ceramic top of the toilet.  The former Special Forces operator succeeds in dodging the ‘improvised’ weapon.  Fawkes fires 15 rounds at her, and, of course, cuts her to pieces!  8-Ball and Cossack check the last bathroom which is empty.

This floor is now clear, so the Team runs down to the 26^th Floor.  Samantha, who is watching through the security cameras, tells the Team that the people in the tower are now alerted to their presence.  The fight is about to get real!                                

 

 

 

Next: Episode 30 – The Battle for the Plymouth Tower

 

 

Well, here we go, Episode 28 and only a week later.  Happy Holidays to all!

 

 

 

Episode 28 - Labor Day Festivities in South Beach

 

 

Members of the Team help the Chrome Berets get their new building in order.  Suzy hires 8-Ball, Samantha (for drone surveillance) and Cossack for an escort / bodyguard job which turns out to be guarding the largest business owner in South Beach, Raymond James III.  He is here for a Labor Day Celebration to display South Beach’s renaissance and his attempt to raise it from its status of a dangerous and ruined combat zone to a safe and prosperous neighborhood.  This goal is antithetical to the many criminal gangs in the area many of whom hold grudges against the Team.  Some unknown person or group organizes these disaffected to turn the festivities into a scene of slaughter and destruction.  It is up to the Team and their allies to make sure this doesn’t happen.     

 

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.  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 the ‘Cartels’ Arbiter’ of disputes in the city.  To the Team’s surprise, they later 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 while they built their case against Baronti.    

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

Arturo Diaz [Businessman]:  The Brazilian immigrant is the owner of the San Paulo Gun Shoppe.

Banzai Jack (Johnny Fuso) [Gang Rank 4, Combat Sense 2]:  He was the son of a disgraced Arasaka security operator that ended up in the combat zone.  Trained by his father, he couldn’t save his parents from a booster gang and drifted into the Chrome Berets as a means of self-protection.  His loyalty to this gang is now absolute.

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.  His girlfriend Linda was a prisoner of the Storm Kings.

Crusher (Charles Knowles) [Gang Rank 6, Combat Sense 3]:  A member of the Chrome Berets, Crusher grew up in the Night City combat zone as a zip.  Always interested in the military, his hopes of a career were dashed by his lack of official papers and a youthful arrest on an assault charge.  His parents died when he was 15 and he spent his efforts to raise his two younger sisters, Mary and Kathleen.  He is a friend of 8 Ball. 

Gary Slidell [Street Punk]:  An old acquaintance of Mitzi from the 88^th Street neighborhood, who seems to have died from using the new street drug called ‘Blue Goo’.

Greg Alberts [Corporate]:  He is the rental manager for South Beach Redevelopment in South Beach neighborhood of San Morro.

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 became completely non-verbal and withdrawn.  While in Colombia, Cossack continued to send money for her support and psychiatric treatment.  The young girl has come out of her shell thanks to the Ukrainian’s kindness. 

Linda Johnson (Billy Ray’s girlfriend) [Gang Rank 2]:  She is one of the women the Team freed from Storm Hold.

Ly Tong [Gang Rank 1]:  A young Vietnamese American man and descendent of an ARVN Army officer.  He is a new member of the Chrome Berets.

(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 88^th 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. 

Mary Knowles [Cook]:  She is the nineteen-year-old sister of Kathleen and Crusher.  She takes care of her sister and has opened a restaurant with Linda Johnson in South Beach.

Matt “the Ghoul” Hobson:  He is a weekend ambulance driver for the Kip Ave. Community Health Center in the 88^th Street neighborhood.  He is known as a ‘cyber vulture’, who will clean up the bodies and split the take with you.

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.  He now works at Suzy Barnes’ garage.         

Raymond James III (Ray-ray) [Corporate 9]:  He is the current owned of South Beach Redevelopment and the primary leader of the effort to rehabilitate that combat zone neighborhood.  His father and grandfather were murdered by Marco Baronti. 

Sarge (Roland Garcia) [Gang Rank 8, Combat Sense 5]:  He is the leader of the Night City Chapter of the Chrome Berets.  He enlisted in the NorCal National Guard at 14 with forged papers and made the rank of Sargent by age 16.  The following year he punched out his platoon Lt. who ordered a suicidal attack against a force of Raffin Shiv.  Although he saved his unit, his true age came out and he was dishonorably discharged from the guard.  His wife was killed in the Security Associates assault.

Swede (Sven Gustafson) [Gang Rank 5, Combat Sense 2]:  The Swede is a hulking blonde man who is supremely loyal to his friends.  He is also a friend of 8 Ball and an avid paint ball player.

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.      

Wu Deng [Fixer 8]:  He is the eldest son and heir of Wu Chang and now leader of the local Tong.  He also serves as manager of the Oceanside Dance Palace.

Wu Ling [Fixer ?]:  This was Wu Chang’s favorite daughter, who inherited the old man’s flagship restaurant and a few other small properties.  Her older brother wasn’t happy about this and the two are now rivals.  This rivalry isn’t overtly hostile as they still maintain a familial bond.

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

Thursday, September 1, 2072:

Cossack, Hollow and 8-Ball get work done on Chrome Berets HQ, while Mitzi, Fawkes and Angel work on the new Team house.

That afternoon the Team learns that an emergency neighborhood security meeting is being called by both the South Beach Owners’ Association and the South Beach Resident’s Association  at the Chrome Berets HQ.  It is well attended.  While waiting for the meeting to start, Cossack notices young Kathleen dragging a reluctant Suzy across the floor towards him.  The 12 year old stops when she reaches Cossack, looks at him, then back to Suzy and again at the Ukrainian.  Finally, she tells Suzy, “Alright, this is where you talk to him.”  

Suzy looks at Cossack quickly, then her eyes hit the floor and she mumbles her words.  A frustrated Kathleen finally tells Cossack, “Look, you make her really nervous.  I don’t know what the story is, but she (Suzy) has something she wants to ask you.

Suzy tells Cossack, “I could really use some help around the garage, but I really can’t pay you much, maybe later…”

“And,” Kathleen encourages her.

“I have a job tomorrow and really need a driver for Friday and Saturday.  I am doing an escort job.  It pays €750 a day,” Suzy tells him while still staring at the floor.

“I am happy to do the escort job,” Cossack says.  “As to the garage, I was just hoping to do a little work in exchange for parts and upgrades to my new vehicle, no cash.” 

Suzy looks up and asks, “You have a vehicle?”

“Yes, a GevHog,” he replies.

The two cautiously work out a deal along those lines.  Cossack ends by asking, “Why do I make you nervous?”

This seems to throw Suzy off a bit as she shoots a quick glare at Kathleen and says (lies), “Sometimes kids have a vivid imagination.”

With that Suzy hurries away.  Kathleen waits till she is out of earshot before telling the Ukrainian, “I think something very bad happened to her, she can be totally weird around guys sometimes.  I wouldn’t worry about it.”

The twelve year old walks away and joins her brother, Crusher, and sister, Mary.  Suzy later walks up to 8-Ball and offers him a bodyguard position on the same job that Cossack just accepted.  She seems less nervous around the solo for some reason, and wants someone who looks ‘bad ass’ for this detail.  The pay is the same as Cossack.  They will pick up the client tomorrow evening for some events.  The man gives a speech on Saturday followed by more events and will be gone that night.  It should bring in a quick €1,500 for the two days.  With this business settled, the meeting starts.

Tomorrow (Friday) there will be a concert at the bandshell located at the western end of South Beach followed by some private social events.  Saturday is a car show at Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Park in morning and afternoon; speeches at 1 pm.  Evening will have a Family Fun Night at the park.  Sunday there will be drag races on Ocean Blvd with the evening ending in a large fireworks display.  On Monday, there will be activities, vendors and amusement rides provided by a traveling carnival at the park.  After these announcements, an NCPD official, Sergeant Todd, explains originally they expected maybe a hundred or so people to be there, but now the crowd is estimated to number more than a thousand.  Mitzi recognizes this police officer.  They dated a bit before she went to Colombia (oh wait, no), the Virgin Islands, a couple of years back. 

Street rumor has it that some of the gangs north of here may be preparing to disrupt the festivities.  There will be a couple of police, local (guardian) gang members and South Beach Security on duty at the bridges that the bus routes take.  All other bridges over San Morro Creek will be closed and blocked off.  There will also be local security people stationed at the cross streets to the north and the Morrison Square neighborhood.  Cossack is asked if he can use his GevHog and carry Hollow, the Swede and Jake as a quick reaction force to hold the lines to the north in case of trouble.  Various skilled rifle marksmen will be positioned around the neighborhood as back-up.  Only Kramer Street will remain open for people to enter the neighborhood.

After the meeting the Team and the Chrome Berets meet and organize themselves to help defend against any possible attack that might be coming.  The Kramer Street crossing will be held by Sarge, Shaka, Isoka, Ly Tong of the Chrome Berets along with an NCPD Detective and one NCPD Patrol officer.  The 157^th Street Bridge will have Crusher, Jacko from the Chrome Berets along with an NPCD Detective and two NCPD Officers.  8-Ball, Mitzi and Angel will be ready to move as a Team, based out of their HQ near that bridge.  Samantha will be flying surveillance drones.  Suzy and Banzai Jack both have heavy duty long guns (a Nomad Long Rifle and a Barret M-90 ET respectively).  Fawkes is a trained Special Forces sniper but has no weapon, so Mitzi speaks to Arturo Diaz from the San Paulo Gun Shoppe who has a Barret M-90 in stock.  She buys her new man the weapon with a few ‘bells and whistles’ along with 10 rounds of standard ammunition.  Banzai Jack will set up on top of the South Beach Office Center (just to the west of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Park) where he can cover the park and all the way up Kramer Street towards Morrison Square.  Fawkes will set up on the west end South Beach Hotel where he can also cover the park and see parts of Kramer Street.  Suzy will set up on the east end of the hotel to cover the 157^th Street Bridge.  If the bridge is overwhelmed, Fawkes is a short run to help her out. 

The meeting breaks up and all the parties make plans for the weekend.          

***

      

Friday, September 2, 2072:

Cossack and, 8-Ball can’t get work done on Chrome Berets HQ because of preparations for the festivities.  Suzy contacts both 8-Ball and Cossack and tells them to be at her garage at 5pm for the escort job.  Fawkes gets a call in the early afternoon to come to the San Paulo Gun Shoppe where he picks up his new Barret M-90.  Arturo throws in another 10 rounds of ammunition and a second magazine for the weapon.  The two solo types are instructed to dress-up nicely, which they do.  8-Ball makes the ‘appearance’ of his life with a ‘44’ in Personal Grooming (a triple crit!). Cossack scores in the twenties, and Suzy has 30’s in both that and her Wardrobe & Style. 

At the garage Suzy tosses Cossack the keys to her BMW and the three drive to a private AV landing pad.  The AV is piloted by an old acquaintance, Zora Pleshakova.  There they meet a man in his thirties, who introduces himself as Ray-ray.  Suzy and he clearly know each other, but their relationship appears to be all business.  They head to a private home in Rancho Coronado neighborhood.  Once there Suzy and Ray-ray take a meeting inside while 8-Ball and Cossack wait outside. 

Back at the bandshell at the western end of South Beach, the music is starting.  Mitzi is there and hears the sound of motorcycles approaching from the north.  She recognizes the group as the Bastard Brood, a 1% Motorcycle gang from the Freedom Park area to the north.  The bikers pull up their machines along the beach, pull out some booze and smash and start to party.  Sarge moves a few of the South Beach Security people in Assault armor with some large weapons to watch at a respectful distance.   The Bastard Brood gets the message.  They act like assholes, but don’t really cause too much trouble.  The bikers’ bad behavior ‘dances up’ to the line, but doesn’t cross it.  They don’t want to get shot by the South Beach Security, Chrome Berets and the NCPD.    

After a few hours in Rancho Coronado, Ray-ray and Suzy come out and they all head back to South Beach.  Cossack is instructed to pull up behind Suzy’s personal apartment building where the two head into a garage.  She dismisses Cossack and 8-Ball for the evening and tells them to be back here at 10am the next day.  She and Ray-ray take an elevator up into her building. 

The concert at the western end of South Beach ends without any major incidents.  The Bastard Brood leave, but not before riding loudly around the neighborhood.  Again, there are no major problems, the gang is being obnoxious enough to be difficult, but not enough to draw any serious security reaction. 

***

 

Saturday, September 3, 2072:

At 10am, 8-Ball and Cossack pick up Ray-ray and Suzy to take them to the South Beach Office Center which South Beach Redevelopment is refurbishing.  The two figure out that Ray-ray is actually Raymond James III, the owner of South Beach Redevelopment, the largest landowner in the area.  Over twelve hundred people come for the car show at the park.  The Bastard Brood make another appearance and remain obnoxious, but not overtly violent.  This gang leaves late in the afternoon.  Ray-ray gives a speech to local business leaders and announces that Trans-Pacific Shipping, a major Japanese transportation corporation, is putting their new Night City headquarters in his South Beach Office Center.  This will bring in 400 new employees to the neighborhood from their scattered small offices around Night City.  Cossack, 8-Ball and Suzy escort Ray-ray around as he inspects a number of his properties.  About 5 pm, the man gets a call and they all head to the AV pad on the South Beach Medical Center’s roof.  An AV sweeps in, again piloted by Zora, and Ray-ray leaves.  This ends the escort job.  The three Team members catch a quick meal and take up security duties for the Family Fun Night.

All is going well at the Family Fun Night when Samantha comes on the comm channel and announces that a ‘sketchy’ looking group is coming down Kramer Street from the north.  Cossack fires up his GevHog and he along with Hollow, the Swede and Jake head towards Kramer Street.  A minute or so later Samantha tells the security forces that a two pronged attack is underway.  The mob coming down Kramer Street is now charging down that street towards the barricade manned by Sarge, Shaka, Isoka, Ly Tong of the Chrome Berets along with an NCPD Detective and a NCPD Patrol officer.  Mitzi, who is at her HQ, and can see Samantha’s drone security feed, recognizes this group is being led by the gang, the Feral Folk.              

Mitzi and 8-Ball are about to sally forth across South Beach to reinforce the Kramer Street barricade when the sound of gunfire erupts right outside across the 157^th Street Bridge.  A bus has pulled up to the barricade on the other side of the bridge.  When the door opens for the policeman waiting to inspect it, gunfire cuts the cop down along with a coupe of Wu Deng’s Tong enforcers.  The bus attempts to cross the bridge, but has its tires shredded by a modified police spike strip.  Out of the bus pour members of the Team’s (and the Chrome Berets’) old nemesis, the Storm Kings booster gang led by a Combat Alpha Cyborg.  Since this is occurring right outside their door, Mitzi and her people head outside to assist Crusher, Jacko (from the Chrome Berets) and the NPCD Detective and two NCPD Officers on this side of the bridge.  Besides the Storm Kings, other members of the waiting crowd attack festival goers waiting to cross the bridge to South Beach.  Suzy sees this and starts to take aim at the Alpha Cyborg with her 15mm BMG.   Jamal and Rue are inside the South Beach Medical Center and grab their weapons when they see the security feed.

(GM Note:  Mitzi also recognizes this Alpha Cyborg as the one who used to work for Marco Baronti.  Marty almost blew his head off during the attack of Baronti’s drug manufacturing facility a few years back.  He is itching for revenge against Mitzi and her Team.

Suzy fires, hits the borg in the head and penetrates for some very serious damage.  The metal man stops and dives for cover.  With only 9 SDP left in his head and that heavy weapon on the field, he immediately regrets not upgrading his armor over the past two years.  Jamal and Mitzi rush out to the police barricade on this side of the bridge and begin firing on the approaching Storm Kings.  Jacko, Crusher and the remaining NCPD laydown heavy fire on the charging gangers, who return fire as they come on.                  

A couple of gangers go down along with a single NCPD officer.  The cyborg, who was leading the charge, decides to beat a hasty retreat and uses local cover to shield himself from Suzy and her Nomad Long Rifle.  With him going she turns her weapon on a Storm King and blows him right out of his boots.  Jamal, Mitzi and 8-Ball continue rushing to the barricade on their side of the bridge to back up Crusher, Jacko and the remaining NCPD officers.  The three player characters form up behind the police barricade and keep up their fire.  Some of the attacking gangers make it to the police line and seriously wound an NCPD officer.  By now the gangers ranks have been seriously depleted and quite a number of their wounded start to crawl away.  None have made it into the South Beach neighborhood.  A few of the retreating  Storm Kings drop some scatter grenades to cover their retreat.  The Team members, the Chrome Berets and the NCPD succeed in repulsing the gang assault across the bridge.  More gunfire can be heard in the distance as the gangers run into more Tong enforcers heading to the fight. 

At this same time to the northwest on Kramer Street.  Another group is coming south from Morrison Square towards the barricade manned by Sarge, Shaka, Isoka, Ly Tong of the Chrome Berets along with an NCPD Detective and a NCPD Patrol Officer.  Banzai Jack and Fawkes turn their M-90 sniper rifles towards this group.  Banzai Jack (with an ET) will be at close range, while Fawkes is at long range.  This is where South Beach Security sends Cossack in his GevHog containing Hollow, the Swede and Jake.  The vehicle arrives to see someone has thrown smoke out in front of the attacking gangers.  Everyone quickly takes positions as the first gangers emerge from the smoke screen.  The whole Team recognizes them as the Feral Folk, some old adversaries, who are in the lead.  Hollow, Cossack and Fawkes shoot but miss.  Isoka, however, puts a bucket of bullets into her target.  The NCPD officers shoot, but the mob isn’t slowed.  Then Sarge, who is cleared for automatic and heavy weapons use, pops a 40mm HE grenade into the mass of oncoming rioters.  Banzai Jack follows this up with a massive torso hit to one of the Feral Folk gang leaders from his .50 caliber Barret M-90 ET.  Despite the leader’s heavy armor, the shot lifts him off his feet, killing him instantly.  The gang’s return fire wounds an NCPD officer and the Swede takes a minor hit.  Within 10 seconds, 9 of the 11 of the Feral Folk are dead along with a couple of unaffiliated street punks.  The rest quickly retreat back into the smoke.  When it clears, there is another smoke screen behind, but no standing rioters.

Samantha comes over the comm channel and reports that this group is in full retreat.  The battle at the 157^th Street Bridge is also just winding down.  The police have a couple of surviving prisoners which they hustle away for interrogation.  No policemen, South Beach Security officer or Team member are killed, but one NCPD officer guarding the open bridge to the north has to be revived by Trauma Team.  He is then rushed to the hospital.   Although the fighting was intense, it didn’t last long and was hardly noticed by most at the Family Fun Night in the park.  By the time the people depart the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Park, the scenes of violence have been cleaned up and all depart in safety.  The tonight’s defense of South Beach is a success!

***    

 

Sunday, September 4, 2072:

The Labor Day festivities at South Beach continue with car races on Oceanside Blvd.  Again, a large crowd is there as the fighting last night didn’t disturb the planned events.  That night there is a large fireworks display on the beach.  Still, security is up and tight.  The comms crackle with reports of fighting underneath the Interstate 16 loop just to the north.  Those posted high on the South Beach roofs see Police and Militech gunships firing along with C-SWAT deploying assault teams.  The combat zone gangs to the north are attempting to renew their attacks, but the police and local San Morro businesses have had enough.  The crowds at the beach watching the fireworks are unaware of the death being meted out a couple of kilometers away as the sound of the fireworks mixes with and drowns out the gunfire’s noise.

Again, South Beach has shown it can defend itself and the locals confidence in South Beach Security, the Chrome Berets, the Knights of Saint Spyridon and the Team is on the rise.     

***

 

Monday, September 5, 2072:

It is a beautiful day and the carnival has set up, so the beach is full.  The Bastard Brood does a ride through, but causes no trouble.  In fact, they are on much better behavior than the past couple of days.  The NCPD and South Beach Security watch them closely, but there is no evidence that they participated in the two gang attacks on South Beach this weekend.  They may not have been involved, but that gang did take note of what happened to those who did. 

***            

 

Tuesday, September 6, 2072

Cossack and 8-Ball along with a few Chrome Berets get work done on that gang’s HQ.  Mitzi, Angel and Hollow continue work on the Team house.

Later in the day, Mitzi gets a text from Vito, which is a series of numbers she recognizes as a drop box in the NET, so she goes and retrieves the information he has left for her.   It is an autopsy report on Gary Slidell from Vito.  The young man died from massive heart and organ failure brought about by unstable compound, which he can’t identify.  This may have been used as binding agent in the possibly psychotropic drug.  How it interacts needs more study with fresh corpse.  He also tells her that she needs to come get Gary’s body or he will have to get rid of it.  She tells him to destroy it. 

Angel goes out an buys himself an electronics tool kit.  Suzy works on programing the security computers for buildings #918 & #922 for South Beach Redevelopment. 

***

 

Wednesday, September 7, 2072:

Cossack and  8-Ball continue to get work done on Chrome Berets HQ.  8-Ball hears from Wu Ling and she has arranged for him to get two lessons a week to learn Mandarin.  Cossack goes out and picks up his damaged clothes from Bob Waite’s Custom Tailors.  Angel is surprised when a truck arrives at the Team house and delivers a complete Master Weaponsmith tool kit for him; a gift from Mitzi.  It has everything but an auto lathe.  It will take him two days to set it all up so he gets right to it.        

***

 

Thursday, September 8, 2072:

Cossack calls Suzy and tells her he does intend on coming around to the garage and help her out, but he has a commitment to finish the Chrome Berets’ HQ; after all he is the project manager.  She starts to tell him something, but stops and says she will see him, just before his Arasaka Te lesson with Jake this evening.   8-Ball and the Ukrainian get more work done on Chrome Berets HQ. 

Mitzi gives Matt, the Ghoul, a call and asks him to save any more bodies with evidence of this ‘Blue Goo’ for her and bring it to Vito.  They work out the financial details and Matt asks if Vito knows about this.  The deputy coroner doesn’t and when she calls him, her old friend tells her he can’t have any more corpses delivered there as his boss isn’t happy about unauthorized bodies around.  He’ll do the autopsy, but she will have to provide the space and store the corpses herself.  Mitzi starts to research large walk in freezers.

Suzy shows up at Jake’s Arasaka Te class and gives Cossack, 8-Ball and Samantha each a €1,500 WORM card for the bodyguard job on Raymond James III last weekend.

***  

 

Friday, September 9, 2072:

Cossack and 8-Ball and get work done on Chrome Berets HQ.

Mitzi calls a Team meeting and reports the results of the autopsy on Gary Slidell.  She also tells them they need to find a place to store any more corpses they need for study and a facility to do the autopsies, since Vito needs to do more work on fresher corpses to learn more about this new drug.  Cossack looks to Jamal and Rue and asks, “Do you have anything at the South Beach Medical Center that would do?”

Jamal tells the Team that they have a few freezer spots and a room for autopsies that Vito could use.  Rue agrees so this problem is solved.  Mitzi will call Matt and Vito and let them know.  Angel brings up the issue of what to do with the corpses once they have finished with them.  He suggests buying an arc furnace, which Mitzi decides is a good idea, but doesn’t know where to get one.  Suzy drifts off into the NET for a few moments and comes back with a list of ten places to get one.  The NET Runner will handle the purchase. 

On the issue of the Voodoo Boyz, Fawkes suggests that he and Angel check out the Hababas (a known Voodoo Boyz hangout on Grace Street) since they aren’t known to be members of the Team.  The former Special Forces operator tells them the bar is on the military’s banned list due to rampant drug use.  Mitzi rejects this idea since she knows that the Baron Samedi set is investigating the Team and they are good at what they do.  It might take some serious disguise skills not to be detected.  Unfortunately, both of the Team’s NET Runners are beginning final exams next week so aren’t available to run cover for the Team until the following week, so this idea is postponed for a week or so.  8-Ball suggests that Mitzi talk with any police she knows about the interrogation of the two prisoners they took from the Labor Day fighting.  Mitzi will call her friend, Sergeant Todd (of the San Morro precinct) tomorrow morning.

***        

 

Saturday, September 10, 2072:

Mitzi gives Sergeant Todd a call and the two arrange to have lunch and a talk.  The policeman is happy to discuss the interrogation of the captured Storm King and other rioter.  He doesn’t know who organized this attack, but the Storm Kings have sworn eternal vengeance of the Team.  That gang learned that the Team was back in town from some unknown source, but their prisoner wasn’t high enough in the gang to know.  The sergeant doesn’t think this gang is smart or powerful enough to have organized the attack.  Of course, Mitzi suspects the Voodoo Boyz may be behind it, but there isn’t even a hint of evidence of this.  They agree to keep in touch.

Suzy and Mouse take the Takaya Daimo Sports car they have completely rebuilt out for a test run with Kathleen and race around South Beach.  They then put it on sale for €30,000.

***

 

Sunday, September 11, 2072:

Suzy and Samantha spend all day studying for their final exams which begin tomorrow.

***

 

Monday, September 12, 2072:

Final Exams for NCU Summer Semester start.  Cossack and 8-Ball get work done on Chrome Berets HQ.  In the afternoon after her first exam, Suzy brings a wrecked corporate van into the shop as her latest rebuild job. 

***

 

Tuesday, September 13, 2072:

That afternoon Suzy calls Cossack and asks him to come to the garage to look at something.  He heads right down.  Suzy and Kathleen are waiting there and bring him into one of the back garage bays.  Inside is the wrecked corporate van.  Suzy explains that the Team needs a company vehicle, but doesn’t have a lot of funds to do this.  She saw this for sale, so she bought it.  Could (and would) he rebuild this so the Team could have it for transportation.  She will pay for parts.  If he could do that, then she will let him use the garage for the project he wanted.  Cossack doesn’t have any tools, so he says he will go out and get a basic tool kit.  Suzy lets him use the garage’s Master Mechanics tool set and also gives him his own (tool) locker.  At this point she suddenly excuses herself and has Kathleen show him where everything in the shop is.  As the 12 year old is showing him around, he asks her, “Did I do something to offend her (Suzy)?”

Kathleen thinks for a minute before replying, “She doesn’t talk a lot about herself.  My brother, Crusher, has known her for a long time and told me she eventually became really guarded around most guys, but I actually think she likes you.  Otherwise, she would never have let you back here.”

Mouse, who has been working on one of his own projects in the next bay adds, “One thing, don’t ever come up behind her or touch her without her knowing you’re there.  That’s how I learned she knows martial arts.  She apologized for days, but it still hurt.”

Suzy installs the security computers in Buildings #918 and #922 for South Beach Redevelopment.

The Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons that evening from 4pm to 8 pm.

***

 

Wednesday, September 14, 2072:

Cossack and 8-Ball go to work at the Chrome Berets HQ.  Once there Cossack informs Sarge that he also has commitments to work at Suzy’s garage and Mitzi’s Team house, so he needs more of the Chrome Berets to step up and help.  Sarge says everyone is busy working out or here, but not to worry if he can’t come every day.  The project is almost done, so he should divide his time as he sees fit.  There is no rush. 

Mitzi gets job offer from Street Temps.  Raven Micro Cybernetics  has a job for them in Detroit.  It must be completed by end of month.  Payment is €7000 per person, transportation, full medical, ammunition plus one piece of gear or cybernetics they manufacture at 33% cost reduction along with free installation or cyber surgery per person.  There is going to be a meeting at 3 am, Thursday morning, and she should bring some of her people.  Mitzi asks 8-Ball and Cossack to go with her.     

***

 

Thursday, September 15, 2072:

The three ride up to Central City in Cossack’s GevHog to the Raven Micro Cybernetics Headquarters.  Their transport is a little loud and definitely memorable.  They are given a parking space under the tower and escorted to an unnamed executive’s office.  The man looks at the three and comments, “Hmm, a GevHog, not exactly an inconspicuous vehicle to bring to a clandestine meeting, but no matter.”

The Raven executive explains the job.  The company used to have an office tower in Detroit, but the neighborhood was devolving into a combat zone.  So, the company took its office (and tax base) out of that city without warning to forestall and attempt by the local government to keep them (and their tax money) in the city.  Raven Micro Cybernetics feels their move was justified and the city has recently expanded one of their combat zone walls to encompass their old office tower.  Unfortunately, the corporation just completed an inventory of their company property they got out and found there is a very large amount of both physical and intellectual property was left behind.  They want it all retrieved.  The executive says they can provide the Team with full schematics of the (33 story) building as they left it and the complete inventory that they want.  It can be loaded on MRAM chips, if they desire.  The equipment they want is in the laboratories on floors 18 thru 23.  The Team should also check all the executive computers on levels of  29 to 32.  Level 33 is a flat roof with two AV / helicopter pads.  There are three elevators but they don’t all open on every floor.     

A gang called the Trash Chippers have taken over, but the company has little to no information on them.  Also, many other civilians may have moved in.  While the company cares little if there are gang casualties, they don’t want to be involved with any massacre of civilians.  The Detroit police will be of no help as they won’t enter this combat zone and the city officials are generally upset at Raven Micro Cybernetics for leaving so they won’t be much help either.  The job boils down to this:  The Team must enter the combat zone, penetrate the office towers defenses, secure the floors where the inventory is located and get it out of the combat zone.  Raven will fly in once the inventory is secured and brought to the roof.  They will fly it and them out.  Everything else is up to the Team.

“In the interest of openness, there is something you should know,” the executive begins.  “You will be the third group sent on this job.  The first people entered the first floor lobby of the tower and were never heard from again.  The second team landed on the roof, but failed to disable the auto guns up there.  They were slaughtered and their AV shot down.”

The man then points out the position of the three large auto guns on the roof.  He also points out a fourth weapon that is now guarding the main front door on the first floor.  Mitzi says they need to talk among themselves first.  The executive has grown a little frustrated with their questions and tells them, they have until 8 am to give him an answer or Raven Micro Cybernetics will find someone else.  The Team heads home.                   

Mitzi immediately contacts Jamal, who is in from Detroit.  He comes downstairs and is informed about the mission.  8-Ball says they will need a small army to do it, but Cossack points out that they are a small army.  Mitzi wants to start the assault on the ground floor, but Cossack feels they only need to hold some of the top floors.  Jamal tells them that getting into the combat zone is easy.  Getting out may be a bit more difficult.  Regardless, his sister and brother in law still live in the city.  He will contact them to begin to gather intelligence.  A vote is taken and the Team decides to take the job.  The Team members will gather a list of what everyone thinks they need; look at the plans and meet again on Saturday to come up with a preliminary operational plan.

At 7:30 am Mitzi makes the call and takes the mission to Detroit.  

Cossack and 8-Ball work on the Chrome Berets HQ.  That evening, the Team, Mary, Linda & Kathleen have their Arasaka Te & Japanese lessons from 4pm to 8 pm.

***

 

Friday, September 16, 2072:

Samantha and Suzy have their last exams as the Summer Term ends for Night City University.

Cossack and 8-Ball work on the Chrome Berets HQ.  Jamal contacts his family in Detroit and everyone works up their ideas for the assault.

 

                                                                          

Next: Episode 29 – On to Detroit

 

 

OK, so I didn't have Episode 27 done inside a week as I promised last July.  Life is funny that way.  We have been playing this campaign quite consistently it's just that putting out a 20 to 30 page (single spaced) write up was overwhelming me  bit.  So, I have decided to get back to it, but not go into too much of the roll playing minutia and concentrating on the important role playing.  So, this episode is a bit of a hybrid on the two methods and I hope (but don't promise) to catch up with the story.  Now, with disclaimers in place, here we go Episode 27!

 

 

Episode 27 - The Blue Goo

 

 

Mitzi works hard to reconnect with her old friends and contacts.  Along the way she convinces three of them to join her new Team.  From her contacts she finds three others who have skills she needs.  After their run in (last episode) with the Voodoo Boyz outside the Paragon, the Team begins to look in to that gang’s recent activities.  The possibility of an epidemic caused by (perhaps) a new drug in town raises its head and the Team begins to look into it.     

 

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’, 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){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.

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

The NPCs

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.  His girlfriend Linda was a prisoner of the Storm Kings.

Crusher (Charles Knowles) [Gang Rank 6, Combat Sense 3]:  A member of the Chrome Berets, Crusher grew up in the Night City combat zone as a zip.  Always interested in the military, his hopes of a career were dashed by his lack of official papers and a youthful arrest on an assault charge.  His parents died when he was 15 and he spent his efforts to raise his two younger sisters, Mary and Kathleen.  He is a friend of 8 Ball. 

Detective Richard Tanque [Cop]:  An old friend (and contact) of Mitzi’s who works out of Precinct 2 in the gang unit.

Gary Slidell [Street Punk]:  An old friend of Mitzi’s from the 88^th Street neighborhood.

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.

Jimmy Mason [Civil Servant]:  Jimmy is a contact and old school mate of Mitzi’s (and others from her old neighborhood0.  He works in the Night City’s Building and Infostructure Department and deals with maintaining all of the physical plans and related documentation. 

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 since then. 

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.

(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 88^th 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. 

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. 

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.         

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.

Nancy Jean Staples [Business Owner]:  This is a sweet little old lady, who is kind to everyone, runs an old store, Nancy’s Book Nook, that sells nothing but older books, often to collectors.  Located right in the middle of Tong controlled area, they maintain a hands off policy towards the store.  Even the local juvie gangs all respect her and leave her alone.

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. 

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.

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 while they built their case against Baronti.      

Wu Chang [Tong Leader]:  This man is the Team’s old local neighborhood’s crime lord and directs his criminal empire through the San Morro Chinese Benevolent Association.  He owns many properties in the Team’s old neighborhood including their old house. 

Wu Deng [Fixer 8]:  He is the eldest son and heir of Wu Chang.  He also serves as manager of the Oceanside Dance Palace.

Wu Ling [?]: This is Wu Chang’s favorite daughter, who inherited the old man’s flagship restaurant and a few other small properties.  Her older brother wasn’t happy about this and the two are now rivals.  This rivalry isn’t overtly hostile as they still maintain a familial bond.

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

Wednesday, August 17, 2072:

Cossack wants to do some errands this morning.  He plans to go to San Morro center to the small EuroBank branch located there and get some cash.  He packs up his damaged jacket (courtesy of the Voodoo Boyz) to get the machete damage fixed.  Afterwards he plans to go to Nancy’s Book Nook.  He calls 8-Ball and Hollow to let them know where he is going.  8-Ball decides to go with him but Hollow can’t since he is going to get a car.   Cossack and 8-Ball take the bus to the bank and the Ukrainian withdraws €300 in cash.  The two then hop the bus back and get off in their old neighborhood.  They make the half a block walk to Bob Waite’s Custom Tailor Shop and drops off his jacket.  The owner is glad to see him.  He can have it done by Monday.  8-Ball wants to buy a new suit and lays out €2834.50 for a new suit.  It will take about a week for him to finish it. 

The two head down to Nancy’s Book Nook and greet the old lady.  Cossack asks for a book on the Dacian people (an ancient people from the area of Romania).  She has one book that has some references about them.  Cossack takes it and pays €10.  Nancy will check with her contacts for something more specific for him.  Both Cossack and 8-Ball head up to have lunch at the Taste of Greece.  Cossack explain that Marty, their late former employer had a Dacian tribal tattoo on her arm that was symbolic in modern Romania of opposition to the EU.   

Meanwhile, Mitzi heads to the phone store in the Southland Mall.  She gets a new phone with two lines and changes her personal number.  The other will be for business.  This sets her back €2000 including the deposit for a new line.  Once she has her new phone, she researches a printer in Night City.  There are a huge number of them.  She chooses one in San Morro and heads down there.  Once at the shop, she orders 500 nice silver and blue cards, which will be ready Monday. 

Hollow goes to the South Beach Redevelopment office and is able to get a parking spot in his apartment building.  This sets him back €250.  He then heads to Barnes Automotive to buy a car.  Only Mouse is there (Suzy has classes today) and buys the used Toyo-Chevrolet Hopper.  Since the shop is a registered used car dealer, they can issue him a temporary tag immediately.  Mouse tells him to come back Monday and they will have his permanent plate.  He spends €2000 and drives his new (used) car home.

After lunch Cossack and 8-Ball head up to a motorcycle store on the east side of San Morro Park.  It is a short walk from the restaurant.  8-Ball is looking for a Eurasian Micro Bike, which they have in stock, and a helmet.  This costs him €200 total.  He carries the bike home, then he and Cossack head to Barnes Automotive.  Once there he gives Mouse the €200 for the smart link kit for Cossack’s Mare’s Leg.  The Ukrainian then asks if Suzy is in, and Mouse tells him, “Oh, no, it’s Wednesday, so she’s in classes up at the university.”

“Could you give her my phone number?  There is something I would like to talk with her about,” Cossack says.

Mouse gets a little hesitant and tells him, “Yean, I’ll give her your number, but …. OK.”

“It’s work related,” he reassures Mouse. 

The gang techie informs them, “Oh, this Thursday, the Chrome Berets’ paintball team has a match against the Knights of Saint Spyridon’s team.  It’s always great fun, no matter who wins.”                 

Both 8-Ball and Cossack say they will be there.  Cossack promises to bet on them, but 8-Ball says he will bet on the Knights, because someone has to. 

Meanwhile, Mitzi has gone back to Suzy’s apartment and gives a call to an old friend from the neighborhood, Richard Tanque, who is now a Night City cop working out of Precinct #2.  He works in the gang with a specialization on the Voodoo Boyz.  Richard is surprised to hear from her and happy LEDiv is no longer after them.  Mitzi tells him that they had a run in with the Voodoo Boyz and it may lead to further confrontations.  She would like some information about that gang.  The cop very loudly tells her he can’t discuss police business with her, but would love to have lunch with her sometime.  As they are talking on a police line, Mitzi gets the message and the two arrange to meet for lunch tomorrow at the Thai House in the Pinewood Bazaar.  “Bring your cred chip,” he tells her. “Lunch will be on you.”

Afterwards, she calls Jake and tells him she would love to do some teaching at his dojo.  Then Mitzi asks him what he is doing for lunch today and would he like to have it with her, she has something that needs to be discussed face to face.  Jake’s up for that and they both head to Mary & Linda’s Restaurant.  It is at this point that Mitzi learns that Jake is actually living in the same building as she is when they meet on the stairs.  At the restaurant, she tells him about their idea of have a group that not only makes some money, but will work to bring some equity to the poor and downtrodden.  This new Team’s motto will be ‘Thou Shall Not Get Away With It!’  She asks if he would be interested in joining the Team.  Jake gives her an enthusiastic yes!  Mitzi goes on and tells him about the new headquarters.  The man also asks if there would be room for him there in the new headquarters.  He explains, “Suzy is letting me stay here for free, but I feel a little weird about it.  She really needs to rent the apartment he is in.”

Mitzi agrees and tells him that someone from Dominic’s Security & Electronics will be going there tomorrow at 10am to go over their security needs.  Jake volunteers to be there too.  The two old friends finish lunch and Jake heads to the South Beach Mall to check on the work crews working on his dojo.  Mitzi realizes she needs to get in contact with Red and his crew.  She decides to start her search by checking out Red’s old gun shop.  Sure enough it has the same name out front, but there is a sign on the door:  ‘Gone out for a drink’.  It takes just a second to figure out that this probably means the Forlorn Hope.  It is on the other side of the block, so she heads there.

Mitzi heads in and says hi to the Professor and the regulars.  Kronos is also there and gives her a sign that he wants to talk with her later.  Over in the corner is Ricky Hidalgo, Red’s man in Night City (and old friend of hers) talking with Marlo.  Ricky is happy to see her and glad she is no longer wanted by LEDiv.  He tells her that Red is happy that, he himself, is also no longer being pursued by LEDiv because of her.  Mitzi tells them both that she and her group are now operating under the old company name of Whyte Hat and going into business.  Marlo and she exchange phone numbers.  They talk at length about the old neighborhood and friends.  Eventually, Ricky has to leave to get back to his shop, so Mitzi heads over to talk with Kronos and the Professor, who says a quick hello and lets the Team leader and the former(?) C.I.A. man talk privately.

Kronos has heard about Mitzi’s return and that she has kept together the Team that had been working for Marty.  He asks her if she might be on the lookout for more talent.  Well, she just happens to be.  The former agent calls over a young man to sit with them.  His name is Xavier Aguinaldo and a 12 year military veteran with Special Forces training.  Mitzi is impressed by Kronos’ recommendation.  The two quickly work out an employment deal. 

Meanwhile, Cossack and 8-Ball take a bus to the San Morro NCART station and head out to a GevHog dealer.  There they take a test drive and work out details of a purchase.  The Ukrainian buys the vehicle and the dealer handles the registration.  The two leave in Cossack’s new purchase and head to the Westbrook Mall.  Once there 8-Ball gets himself a small computer, some chips, a nice personal grooming kit and other equipment.  The two then head home.  Cossack parks his new toy and 8-Ball heads to the San Paulo Gun Shoppe.  The owner, Arturo Diaz, is happy to see him.  The solo needs his custom grips for his Gamad replaced, some ammunition and a bow and arrow.  The two discuss the Nova Arms plasmatic revolvers, which 8-Ball is considering buying. 

That evening Mitzi calls the Team together for supper at Mary & Linda’s Restaurant and they all compare notes on their day.  At dinner, she also informs them that a new member, Xavier Aguinaldo, a former US Special Forces veteran will be joining them.  While they are all together there, Mitzi’s phone rings.  It is Ricky Hidalgo.  He is wondering if her new Team is looking for a dedicated Techie?  She says, she just might have such a position open.  He knows a guy who is excellent weapons tech among his many skills.  She agrees to meet the candidate at the Forlorn Hope tomorrow.  His name is Angel Torres. 

Mary Knowles comes up to their table to take their order and asks if the group is coming to the San Morro Paintball Palace tomorrow.  The Chrome Berets are going up against a team from the Knights of Saint Spyridon.  The two gangs have a friendly local rivalry.  Both groups are evenly matched and whoever wins, there is usually good times and drinks at Maury Kelly’s Irish Pub across the street afterward.  The Team tells her they will all be there.  Their food is brought out by young Kathleen who smiles at Cossack and Mitzi.  She is still shy around the rest of the group, but clearly the 12 year old is recovering from her trauma.  Kathleen tells them she is still in therapy and spends time helping Suzy at her auto shop on her off time.  The young girl scampers off when her sister calls out, “Order up!”                 

***

 

Thursday, August 18, 2072:

Both Cossack and 8-Ball head to the new Chrome Berets headquarters to see if they can help get the place finished.  It is apparent to Cossack that the gang doesn’t have skills to really do work; they have the materials, but not the time as many now have jobs.  So, Cossack volunteers to organize the job.  8-Ball will work with him.  With the help of between the two and the gang members available, the Ukrainian estimates it will take about 20 full work days to complete the job.  The two get right to it.

At 10 am, Mitzi meets the representative from Dominic’s Security and Electronics.  As the rep makes his recommendations, she realizes that she has much of what he is recommending is in the storage that Marty left behind.  With Mitzi’s high electronic security skill and experience as a ‘Prowler’, she realizes that this advice isn’t anything she doesn’t know already. 

After this Mitzi heads to the Pinewood Bazaar to have lunch with Richard Tanque, her old friend and detective in the NCPD who is a member is a squad dedicated to keep an eye on the Voodoo Boyz.  Mitzi tells him about the ‘issue’ they had with that gang a couple of days ago outside the Paragon Club.  She is looking for information on this gang, as purely a defensive measure.  Tanque is aware of ,this and tells her that rumor has it that that gang is also seeking information about Mitzi and somebody they are calling “The Feather Guy”.  The detective is willing to provide information to her as long as information flows both ways.  The cop is looking for evidence that will allow him to build solid cases against this gang.  He also doesn’t want bodies dropping all over the city.  To Mitzi’s protestations, he reminds her that the word on the street is that she and her people are responsible for the fall of the Storm Kings booster gang.  She, of course, denies it, and Detective Tanque pretends to believe her.  With the ground rules set, Detective Tanque tells Mitzi what the Voodoo Boyz have been up to for recently. 

Ever since the death of their leader a little of a year ago, new leadership has taken over and the gang has grown rapidly.  It now consists of six ‘sets’, each with a different function in the organization.  They are spreading out of city like a plague and may number about 75 members.  The police think the group has moved underground, literally, and may have set up a headquarters west of Night City University outside the police control zone.  He fills her in on the Voodoo Boyz new ‘Set’ reorganization:     

DAMBALLAH – The most well-known Voodoo deity with the world at large, exceeded only by Baron Samedi perhaps. This serpent god who encircles the Earth was also the creator of human beings and gods and controls intelligence and the life-force. When he is not depicted encircling the Earth or intertwined with his wife the rainbow goddess Ayida, Damballah is shown living among the branches of the Sacred Tree. This Leadership Group has been completely replaced by ambitious “up and comers” since the old leadership’s disastrous alliance with the late Marco Baronti.  They are smart, highly modified and no one knows their names.  They are believed to number about five people.

OGUN – Often called the Voodoo Hercules, Ogun is the god of war, iron, fire, metalworking, politics and technology. Ogun is believed to have come down to fight in every war in Haiti’s history in various human guises. His symbol is a sword stuck upright in the ground. Those possessed by Ogun can wash their hands in burning sugar-cane without feeling any pain. When those thus possessed are thirsty for rum they make with the Haitian soldier’s cry of “My testicles are cold”.  This set are the primary enforcers.  They are highly modified, cyberpsychos who kill without remorse. 

BARON SAMEDI – He is both the god of death and life.  He is usually depicted with a top hat, black tail coat, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils, as if to resemble a corpse dressed and prepared for burial in the Haitian style. He is frequently depicted as a skeleton (but sometimes as a black man that merely has his face painted as a skull), and speaks in a nasal voice.  This group reputedly stays underground in the area west of Night City University.  It is said if you see them, then you are about to die.  This group are stealthy assassins but also have great healing skills. 

ZACA – The god of agriculture and the harvest, making him the patron deity of farmers and fieldworkers. Zaca is the friendliest and most approachable of the gods and may be addressed as “Cousin Zaca” if spotted in the fields. He dresses in denims and a straw hat just like the rural Haitians do. In addition, Zaca smokes a pipe, drinks from bottles of rum and wields a machete. His holy day is Haitian Labor Day on May 1st.  This set is seldom seen as they now produce most of the drugs sold by the gang.  Their location is unknown, but suspected to be in the underground west of NCU.  They are considered the least violent of the various sets.

LEGBA – The sun god and intermediary between the gods and humanity. He speaks all human languages and is always the first god or loa to be invoked in Voodoo ceremonies. It is through Legba that loa move back and forth from the realm of the gods in Guinee to the mortal world to possess worshippers. He holds the key and guards the doorway and the roads between the two worlds. By extension he is viewed as the god of all gates and crossroads. Legba is considered the “good” counterpart to his dark twin Kalfu. Despite his power Legba is depicted as an old man walking with a crutch or cane for support. All dogs are sacred to him.  As such this set moves the drugs between the ZACA and the two distribution sets: the ERZULIE and the KALFU.

KALFU – The moon god and ruler of the night. He is the patron deity of sorcerers, especially those who practice black magic. He also has lordship over charms, bad luck, destruction and all manner of injustices. Those possessed by Kalfu display dark eyes and shed black tears. Kalfu’s favorite drink is rum laced with gunpowder. He is often seen as a dark version of Legba.  This group is spreading like a cancer out from the Southland Mall area of the South Night City Combat Zone.  This is the group that those who are headed over the ‘Edge’ seek out as it often leads to the OGUN and BARON SAMEDI sets. 

ERZULIE – The goddess of love, beauty and passion. She wears three wedding rings in recognition of her three husbands – the gods Ogun, Agwe and Damballah. Erzulie’s three husbands pamper her and provide her with a lavish and luxurious existence, an idyllic life broken up only by the sadness the goddess feels because of broken hearts among humans.  The goddess is always powdered and perfumed and adorns herself with all manner of jewelry.  This is the set that sells drugs around Night City University.  It is usually where new members start out.  This group is reputed to be the largest.

Mitzi picks up the tab for lunch and she and her friend, Detective Tanque, part company.  The fixer then heads down to the Forlorn Hope to meet this techie that Ricky Hidalgo is recommending.  At four o’clock, Ricky comes in with a young man who she figures must be Angel Torres.  The two men sit with her as Ricky sings the young man’s praises.   Mitzi tells him she needs some wire laid in the house to which he immediately suggests optical cable since magnetic taps can read signals through some types of walls.  While Angel’s personal combat skills aren’t great, he is also trained chemist and demolitions expert.  They work out the details and the techie accepts the job. 

The young woman calls the other members of the Team to recruit them to move the furniture she has in storage to their new headquarters.  The fixer then contacts Suzy to borrow her van.  It takes her a bit of time to answer and she seems a bit disturbed.  She was in the middle of a transmission rebuild.  And no, she just sold it.  So, the fixer makes a few more calls and arranges for a truck rental and a commercial driver to move it.  After that she contacts the Team and arranges for them to all meet to pick up her gear from the North Oak base and Marty’s old storage. 

That evening, the Team heads to the San Morro Paintball Palace.  Besides most of the Chrome Berets there Linda, Suzy, Mary and Kathleen Knowles are there to watch.  The team they competed against before the Colombian expedition (the Regular Guys) are also there and greet the group.  Cossack bets €50 on the Chrome Berets and 8-Ball puts €100 on the Knights (somebody has to bet on them, he reasons). The match between the Knights of Saint Spyridon and the Chrome Berets comes down to two Knights and only a ‘wounded’ Crusher remaining.  Crusher fires twice and eliminates both of them and wins the day!  There is one more match and all to go across the street to Maury Kelly’s Irish Pub afterward.  All that is except Mary and Linda who after open the restaurant early, Kathleen who is only 12 years old and Suzy who has class early in the morning.  Cossack tells Suzy he wants to call her tomorrow.  This takes the young woman by surprise who suspiciously asks why.  He is just interested in maybe doing some work at her garage.  Suzy mumbles, “She’ll think about it.”  The four young women head home as everyone else goes across the street to the pub.

(GM Note:  So, the Team and the Chrome Berets let four young women walk home late at night through a combat zone.  They never do learn that five members of the Feral Folk, a vicious local gang, jump the women on their walk.  None of the girls are carrying a gun, but they do have some assorted knives.  Suzy, who is a trained, dual wielding knife fighter, kills three of them in short order.  Linda, a member of the Chrome Berets kills a fourth while Mary and little Kathleen take down the last one.  The speed and ferocity of the women’s attack shocks the Feral Folk, who don’t survive the females’ onslaught.  The women strip the gangers of their weapons, money and valuables.  The bodies are left for any local cyber vultures to pick clean.  Little Kathleen takes the combat knife from her first kill as a prize which she will begin to wear.]

For the rest, the drinks and good times flow at the pub.  The tone of this place is much lighter than the last time they were here.  From the Knights of Saint Spyridon, they learn that since Wu Chang’s death, the old neighborhood  alliance has fallen apart because his son, Wu Deng has pulled his part of the surveillance system out.  Some in the Knights think he is practicing a little ‘ethnic cleansing’ and driving out non-Asians.  There aren’t any hostilities between them and the Tong, but relations are cooler.  8-Ball is interested in finding someone who could help him with his Mandarin.  The Knights suggest he talk to Wu Ling, Wu Den’s sister, who now owns Wu Chang’s old restaurant.  She is still on good terms with them. 

The Team heads home.  When they get near the 157^th Street bridge, they see some people tossing a body into a van and quickly take off.  8-Ball can tell that these people are Asian, but little else.  When the group gets to the corner, they notice there is blood everywhere and lots of it.  The Team quickly heads home. 

(GM Note:  This is where the girls killed the Feral Folk.  What the Team saw was the last of the various ‘vultures’ cleaning up the scene.  They never did find out what happened here, until they read this so it isn’t character knowledge.)    

***     

 

Friday, August 19, 2072:

In the morning the Team heads to the North Oak military base with their rented truck.  There is a small delay at the gate, but soon, they have everything packed up and are on their way back to South Beach.  Rue and Hollow aren’t there because they never call them.  Jake, Angel, Xavier and Mitzi take rooms and set up their furniture.  After being called Xavier all day, the man tells the rest of the group that he normally goes by the moniker of Fawkes.  The Team gets the reference and likes it, so he is called Fawkes by everyone from now on.  Since Rue is working at the base hospital today they also set up a room for her.  At dinnertime, Mitzi pays for take-out from Wu Chang’s.

Afterwards, the ‘moving crew’ gets dressed up and picks up Mia to head to the Central City and the Grand Illusion to see the band, the Cyber Revolutionaries.  While this group is unknown to 8-Ball, Fawkes and Angel, both Jake and Mitzi know them from growing up in the 88^th Street neighborhood.          

When the Team gets there, they find the place has a weapons check.  A booster in front of them checks his submachine gun but nobody blinks.  Everyone hands over their guns without hesitation.  The place is packed and the opening bands are on stage.   The group spies a couple of the Voodoo Boyz in attendance.  These gangers also notice them, but they have no reaction to the Team’s presence.  Finally, the Cyber Revolutionaries hit the stage.  They have a lead singer, drummer, keyboardist, guitar player and a bassist who is Cassie Banes, the sister of Tom and Ari who were members of Mitzi’s old team.  Onstage with them, they have two barely dressed dancers: Samantha and Suzy!  

8-Ball takes note of an old guy sitting at the bar, drinking and watching the band.  He seems a little out of place with this young crowd.  The Team’s attention is drawn by a disturbance at one of the three bars.  A young punk is getting belligerent.  The bouncers are on him quickly and start to drag him out.  Oddly, there is a kind of blue goo oozing from his nose.  8-Ball observes, “Hey guys, there might be some kind of new drug in town.”

Regardless, the punk is tossed out.  The band does two sets.  Some of the Team hit the floor and dance and the evening proceeds without further incident.  When the Cyber Revolutionaries are finished, the old man at the bar walks up to stage door and walks right in.  The bouncers guarding that door let him right in.  Cossack suggests, “He’s probably a talent scout.”

8-Ball disagrees, but, in fact, Cossack is right.  With the music at an end the Team heads home and as does Mia.  Mitzi decides that there will be a Team meeting on late Sunday afternoon.    

***

 

Saturday, August 20, 2072:

Mia gives 8-Ball a call in the morning and is wondering if he wants to go with her to see a movie at the Biograph Theater with her today.  He does and will get back to her later after he speaks to Mitzi to see if the Team has any business for today.  8-Ball goes to lunch at Wu Chang’s Restaurant and asks if they know anyone who teaches Mandarin.  The people he knows there will ask around for him.  The solo then checks the neighborhood for a place to practice with his new bow and arrows.  He doesn’t find any place so he tries the range at the San Paulo Gun Shoppe.  They do let people use their downstairs range for a price and suggest that in the daytime on weekdays is the best (and cheapest) time for that.

Cossack heads down to the Silk Pagoda and purchases three large silk room dividers (screens) for his new apartment.  They have one in stock and he orders two more.  After returning from Wu Chang’s Restaurant, 8-Ball asks Mitzi for a motorcycle lesson which she gives him.  Afterwards she calls Suzy, but the call goes to voice mail.  She wants an introduction to her friend, Jamal Hemmings, who is a MedTech.  As the fixer is leaving a message, she hears the sound of a familiar motorcycle outside.  Suzy pulls up to Mary and Linda’s Restaurant next door.  She has young Kathleen on the back and the two head inside.   Mitzi comes downstairs and also goes in to the eatery.  She sits with Suzy and Kathleen for dinner, and asks for an introduction to Jamal, which Suzy is quite willing to do.  The NCU student calls Jamal who comes right over, quickly, since he lives next door.  Kathleen finishes eating, puts on her apron and begins work.  Mitzi does notice that the young girl has a large combat knife on her hip.  The fixer and the MedTech quickly come to an agreement.  He will work with the Team and attend the Team meeting on Sunday.  Suzy excuses herself as she has her workout to attend to.  Once Suzy leaves Mitzi remembers she wants to talk with Samantha about working with the Team and calls for her number.  Suzy is a little hesitant and says she will speak to her first.

8-Ball calls Mia and the movie she wants to see is an old 20^th century flat cult film at the Biograph Theatre called Eating Raoul.  When walking Mia back to her dorm, the two come around the corner and there are four of the Voodoo Boyz.  The four obviously recognize them, but take no action except one takes out his camera phone and snaps the couple’s picture.

***      

 

Sunday, August 21, 2072:

In the morning, Mitzi takes the bus and NCART to her old 88^th Street neighborhood and attends her old parish, Saint Mary’s.  Father Joe is happy to see her and the two speaks after mass.  The fixer tells the priest that she is forming up a Team and they intend to also do ‘good works’ to help people who can’t afford the price of justice.  Funny thing, he does know someone that needs some help.  The son of one of his parishioners, Gary Slidell, (Mitzi knew him) went a little crazy, flailed around and spitting up some kind of blue goo.  This reminds her of the incident at the Grand Illusion last Friday night. 

Mitzi then heads to Gary’s mother, who she also knows.  She doesn’t learn much.  When her son collapsed after screaming and flailing around, the mother went inside to call the police and an ambulance.  When she came back outside, the body was gone.  Mitzi learns that Gary had stopped hanging out with his old friends and had begun to frequent the Burkett Mall a couple of blocks west of here.  That place is a hellhole and outside of the police control zone in the territory of the Blood Reign booster gang.  By agreement the police don’t go there and the Blood Reign stays out of the police control area.   Boswell Avenue, a north-south road, is the dividing line.  Mitzi thanks Joan Slidell and tells her she will look into it.  The fixer then returns to South Beach. 

Meanwhile, Cossack reads his book on the History of the Dacian People and 8-Ball reads up on the stock market.  Two o’clock come around and Team members both old and new show up.  When Jamal walks in, he immediately sits next to Rue and introduces himself with a smile.  Mitzi tells the Team that Jamal is a MedTech and Navy SEAL.  Suzy and Samantha also walk in.  Suzy and Jamal greet each other warmly.  Suzy looks at Angel and asks him who he is.  He gives his name and says he works for Mitzi.  Suzy turns to Xavier and asks, “And who are you, Mr. Tattoos and sunglasses?”

“Don’t forget my piercings,” he replies.  “My name is Fawkes, like Guy Fawkes.”

“Hmm, like the fifth of November?” Samantha says and then she and Suzy crack up laughing.                

Mitzi calls the meeting to order and she goes over the information from Detective Tanque.  Word is out now that the Team are available for bodyguard, escort and other kind of work.  Then the fixer tells them that she got a lead from Father Joe from her old neighborhood about a dead and missing teen.  On hearing the priest’s name Suzy snorts in derision.  Mitzi just continues and points out that the young man had a blue goo coming out of his nose before he died.  When the mother went to call the police, her son’s body disappeared.  Suzy, who is also from the 88th Street neighborhood asks, “Did you talk to the Ghoul?”

Mitzi thinks that’s a good idea.  She then moves back to the subject of the Voodoo Boyz.  The fact that they now move underground and are divided into multiple sets are a problem.  The thought of searching the sewers is rejected as Samantha points put that the Team is outnumbered over 7 to 1.  Cossack asks, “Who are the Voodoo Boyz working with now?”

“Did they ever work for anyone?” Suzy asks.

“They use to work for Marco Baronti,” Cossack tells her.  At the mention of that name Suzy gets very quiet and starts to stare at the floor.  

8-Ball says, “How do they make their money?”

“They sell drugs,” Samantha replies.   

The Team discusses what kind of drugs they sell and the possibility of interrupting the flow of supplies.  Fawkes says he has some contacts at the military base and he will ask around.  They decide they need a sample of this blue goo.  Jake looks around and asks about everyone’s skills.  He knows some of the Team since he taught Cossack weaponsmith back when they worked for Marty.  Of course, he admits going to school with both Mitzi and Suzy.  He smiles at Samantha and says, “And I have seen her shake her ass for years.”

People name some of their skills.  Jake tells them he is the nephew of Honzo Kitagawa, which everyone on the Team recognizes as one of the creators of Arasaka Te and a high level Arasaka official.  Jake tells them that he is opening a dojo at the South Beach Mall when the place opens in October.  For now, he offers the Team free lessons.  Some accept his offer and the others will consider it.  They all continue to bandy about ideas to take on the Voodoo Boyz.  They finish the meeting by going over their individual skills.  Finally Hollow pipes up with, “And I like to kill people.”

On that note people head home.         

***

 

Monday, August 22, 2072:

Cossack picks up his new suit from Bob Waite’ Custom Tailors and 8-Ball picks up his IMI Gamad with its new grips.  In the evening, 8-Ball speaks with the Chrome Berets in regard to what they know about ‘tunnel warfare’ during the Vietnam War.  Angel, Xavier (Fawkes) and Cossack all use the Scholar system to get Japanese 1. 

Mitzi picks up her new Whyte Hat business cards, and then goes to visit her old neighborhood to see Matt, the Ghoul and Vito Agosti, her first Team’s MedTech and current Deputy Coroner for that area.  She asks Matt and Vito if they have heard anything about some kind of ‘blue goo’ coming out of orifices of dead druggies.  They both say no.  Mitzi believes Vito is telling the truth, but Matt isn’t a good liar.  He clearly knows something.  Since the cyber vulture is a friend, she tells them that if they hear anything of value on this, they should contact her.  Matt says, “Well, value to me is money.”

Mitzi makes it clear that any information will be rewarded with ‘value’. 

***

 

Tuesday, August, 23, 20072:

8-Ball and Cossack spend a lot of time working at the Chrome Berets.  Mitzi supervises and assists Angel with setting up the security system.  Angel, Xavier (Fawkes) and Cossack practice their Japanese and confirm their Japanese 1.  8-Ball gets on the Scholar and gets his initial Japanese 1 training.  They all begin to take Jake’s Arasaka Te lessons with Mary, Linda and Kathleen.

***

 

Wednesday, August 24, 2072:

Mitzi calls another old friend (and contact), Jimmy Mason, who works in the city’s planning and inspection department, and the two arrange to have lunch tomorrow.  Jimmy has access to all the registered building and infrastructure plans in the city.  8-Ball and Cossack put in more time at the Chrome Berets headquarters and will continue to do that in their spare time.  Wu Ling, who now owns Wu Chang’s Restaurant calls 8-Ball.  She has found him a Mandarin teacher and the two work out details for him to started with these.  Xavier (Fawkes) calls an old contact, Major Karl Schrader, who is now in Military Intelligence at the North Oak army base, and gets any information about bars and clubs on the military’s banned list; especially those on the list due to drug use and/or the Voodoo Boyz.

At times during the day, Angel, Xavier (Fawkes) and Cossack all use the Scholar system to get initial training in Japanese 2.  Suzy joins Angel in the evening in wiring the security system in Team’s new house.

***

 

Thursday, August 25, 2072:

Mitzi gets dressed to impress for lunch with Jimmy Mason.  After some friendly chit-chat, Mitzi gets to the point.  She is interested in any information he might have heard about the Voodoo Boyz and their supposed underground facilities.  He laughs at this and tells her that gangs don’t file business plans.  When Mitzi offers to contribute to his ‘retirement fund’ if he contacts her with anything he might here, he quickly agrees.  Once lunch is over, Mitzi heads down to Edgerunners’ Inc. and registers Whyte Hat with them as a way to possibly get a few jobs.

Work continues at the Chrome Berets and the Team’s HQ.   Angel, Xavier (Fawkes) and Cossack practice their Japanese and confirm their Japanese 2.  8-Ball gets on the Scholar and gets his initial Japanese 2 training.  That evening they join Jake for his Arasaka Te class.

***

 

Friday, August 26, 2072:

Cossack and 8-Ball continue working at the Chrome Berets’ HQ.  Angel is still running wire in their house.  That evening 8-Ball gets on the Scholar and confirms his Japanese 2.

***

 

Saturday, August 27, 2072:

Mitzi contacts Cossack and 8-Ball.  They discuss what to do about Gary Slidell’s death and the Burkett Mall.  They toss around the pros and cons, but are still at a loss on how to proceed.   Mouse delivers his Mare’s Leg to Cossack.  8-Ball calls Mia to see if she is free tonight.  Yes, she is.  She plans to attend a gallery opening and invites the solo to come with.  He does and the two have a lovely evening.    

***

 

Sunday, August 28, 2072:

Around noon, Mitzi’s phone ring.  It’s Matt, the Ghoul, from her old neighborhood.  He says he has something ‘blue’ that might interest her.  It will cost her €1,000.  When she asks what that might be, he replies, “It’s something I deal with.  Make sure to bring a vehicle.”

Mitzi catches his drift and the two arrange to meet at 3 pm.  The fixer calls Cossack to get him to drive his GevHog.  When he finds out they will be transporting a corpse, he points out that his vehicle has an open passenger area, which might attract some unwanted attention.  The Ukrainian suggests she call Hollow, since he recently bought a car from Suzy.  So, the fixer gives Hollow a call.  She tells him that she needs a corpse transported.  Hollow asks, “Who did you kill?”

“No one, he was already dead,” she replies.

Hollow sighs and says with a hint of sarcasm, “Well, I guess that makes it OK.” 

After some discussion about how messy this body may be, they bring some plastic sheets.  For added security, Mitzi calls Cossack who agrees to come also.  They meet the Ghoul who has his ambulance parked under the highway.  Matt opens the back of his vehicle.  Inside is Gary Slidell’s rather ripe corpse.  Sure enough there is a dried blue goo encrusted on his face where it came out of his nose.  Mitzi asks if Matt can deliver the body to Vito Agosti for an autopsy.  The Ghoul asks if Vito is expecting this delivery.  No, he isn’t so she calls her old friend.  Yes, Vito will do an autopsy, off the books, for €500.  Matt will deliver Gary’s body to the local morgue where Vito works.  First, Mitzi wants to take a sample of the blue goo, but realizes she doesn’t have anything to hold the sample.  At this point, a group of bikers come around the corner and roll up.  They are members of the Thunder Gods MC.  The fixer recognizes a few of them.  The lead biker looks at the Ghoul, and asks, “Business?”

Matt nods.  The leader then looks to Mitzi and says, “Nice to see you; glad you’re not dead.”

“Me too,” she replies.  The bikers drive off.

The Ghoul hands Mitzi his credit transactor and tells her €1,500; a thousand for him and five hundred for Vito.  The fixer makes the transfer and arrangements to pick up the sample of ‘blue goo’ and autopsy report.  The three Team members head back to South Beach.

***

 

Monday, August 29, 2072:

Mitzi orders a full weapon smith tool set up so Angel can begin working on the Team’s weapons.  Cossack and 8-Ball continue work on the Chrome Berets HQ, while others work on their own new house.  Cossack does take some time to go to the Silk Pagoda and pick up the two silk room divider screens he ordered.

***

 

Tuesday, August, 30, 20072:

This is another work day at the Team house and Chrome Beret HQ.  Suzy has no classes today so she comes over to help.  That night Jake continues his martial arts lessons for the Team.

***

 

Wednesday, August 31, 2072:

More work on both current projects is done and security system in the Team house is up and running.

 

                                                                         

Next: Episode 28 – Labor Day Festivities in South Beach

 

 

OK, there we go.  I hope to have more episodes out very soon.  Happy Holidays to all!

 

 

Sure; here is how the timeline stands now.  Please note this is some of these dates are subject to change and some information won't be known to the Team until later.

NCU Graduation - Saturday, June 17th; undergraduates in morning (Mia & Suzy), graduate students in afternoon (Jamal, Rue & Samantha).

The graduation party is scheduled for the evening of the graduation.  It is to be held at the Night-Marriot Convention Center (B1, #17 in the Night City Source Book).  The location will be switched the day before graduation to the South Beach Hotel although this will not be announced until the day before graduation.

The VDB leader meeting is currently scheduled for the night of Thursday, June 15th.  Samantha & Suzy will not share its location mostly as it may change so they are continuing their surveillance.

 

The only information about the Storm Kings participation in this upcoming war is from communications intercepted from the Agassu set (44th Street neighborhood) to the Damballah Set (the leadership group).

The crime boss of the zone north of the zone north of us (whose name is somewhere in my notes) hasn't fully committed to take part in the upcoming war on the side of the Voodoo Boyz.  The zone just to the north of South Beach is called Morrison Square and the area to the north of that is called Freedom Park.  The crime lord of Freedom Park is best described as 'chaotic evil' (or chaotic neutral on a good day).  He hasn't been too much of a problem to you since he and the crime boss of Morrison Square HATE each other and he is loath to give the powers in South Beach (the Team and its allies) any reason to join with Morrison Square in an alliance against him.  So far he has agreed not to hinder any movement of the Voodoo Boyz and their allies in the upcoming war.  The Voodoo Boyz are trying to get him to commit to joining their planned mass attack on South Beach during the July 4th celebrations.  So far he hasn't agreed, but is considering it.  The hope is that the Team's preemptive strike and police raids scheduled (so far) for Thursday, June 15th will convince him not to join in this attack.  

The two major landowners in South Beach, Raymond James III (South Beach Redevelopment) & Suzy (Reynolds Realty) don't want to do anything to antagonize the Freedom Park leader (yet) since his feud with Morrison Square keeps both crime bosses from moving against South Beach. 

Most of this information was communicated to the Team on Friday, May 19th.  It is NOT to be discussed anywhere except in the security room of the Team's HQ.  The Baron Samedi Set are accomplished spies.  They are watching and probably listening to the Team's own conversations. 

 

Any questions beyond this must be asked from one of your characters and addressed to an individual PC / NPC as the answers each get may be slightly different depending on the question.