Rise of Jaguar News

Rise of Jaguar News
Date 2083-12-05 GM Draknic Location Snohomish Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Aztechnology Corp.	Horizon Corp Runners
Ryan Danes Angra Mainyu Dezeroth A'kyer Throwback	Character1 Character2
Casualties and losses
	Entire initial OPFOR strikeforce

Summary

In the wake of a massive hostage situation, HRT squads responding for Aztechnology were overwhelmed, Johnson decided to call in some shadowrunners to avoid spreading their numbers too thin. After some basic investigation, the runners were ambushed, forcing a massive fight through a booby trapped building to free multiple high value hostages from multiple waves of hostile units.

The Meet

The group met in downtown, each runner rather uninformed about what the circumstances of the run were. After spotting a similar looking gang of runners dip out of the meet location, they entered, quickly being waved off down some halls, eventually entering a room with a few intimidating looking characters guarding a gentleman screaming Spanish into a commlink. Politely waiting for the call to finish, the runners watched the phone sail across the room, already sparking and overheating as it blew apart into pieces on impact.

As Johnson turned to reveal himself, the runners were treated to the sight of a rather heavily armored man with Aztechnology branding, matching those of the others in the room. Taking a seat to meet with Johnson, he got down to business. Apparently, a hostage situation was currently active, something above what J's team could not deal with thanks to their limited size. Apparently, he could deal with two of the buildings and the primary hostages within, the third building and the three hostages inside would be something the runners would be set to deal with. The hostiles appeared to be holding their last stand in Snohomish, where the company had been building up their influence. The runners were warned that Horizon was operating nearby in the area, and additionally, their digression in the situation was expected. In addition to the primary trio of hostages the runners were paid to take care of, there were also unknown numbers of non-essential personnel that happened to also be caught up in the situation, something the J wasn't exactly too mindful of.

With a request for a good old nuyen squeeze on Johnson from M3chan1c, Dez stepped up to plate, working hand in hand with Throwback talking shop with the military man, and Dez going in for the kill, the kindly gentleman detailing the logistics of such an operation. Managing to sway Johnson, the runners would be paid a bonus 2k nuyen on top of their previous rewards should they manage to bring all three hostages in alive.

Through a series of matrix searches from the party's matrix-sensitive members, the runners were able to grab information on the mind mage of the hostile group they would be facing. A powerful mind mage with a violent and traumatized past, the mage was born into and raised through wars, participating in gladiatorial duels and general chaos. The runners were warned to deal with a powerful set of mind control spells, as well as a rather prepared set of more direct combat spells and even some enhancing cyberware.

The Plan

Approaching the location as the search concluded, the runners spotted a massive series of astral barriers, two of which they were allowed within due their agreement working under the corporation, the third seemed to be from another, outside force immediately made the presence of hostile mages known to the runners.

As M3chan1c and Throwback went for the matrix search, the pair were dismayed to discover that the building was matrix-shielded, with the only possible point of intrusion being a massive antennae sticking out of the top of the building. Dez offered to place a datatap on the access point for the runners, donning his stealth cloak and some gecko gloves to climb the exterior up to the third floor, while things seemed to go rather smoothly from the start, as he mounted up to the roof, a pair of cackling spirits appeared behind him.

The Run

The first spirit raising its arms in a fear-inducing shriek, a split second passing before a banishment from Ahriman dissipated them instantly, followed immediately by the second being blown to astral wisps as a shot from M3chan1c ended it. Following this, one of the rigger's drones turned about, firing out at one of the drones mounted up outside, blasting a chunk out of its armor and sending the thing on a banzai charge towards the Rigger van, setting off a massive C4 charge, which merely rocked the vehicle without causing any major damage. Seeing this wasn't effective, a pair of the remaining drones popped out their secondary weapons, sending a pair of rockets careening towards the runners, the first being stopped by another of the hostile drones, with the second blasting into the van, rattling the hinges a bit as the runners shouted from within.

While throwback got to work trying to tag the drones for the other runners, Dex sprinted for the antenna, installing the datatap and getting the matrix-runners access inside finally, surprisingly, M3chan1c was surprised to see this action result in the marks on his deck suddenly disappear just as this went about, while the hostile drones began to waiver and struggle to fight back against the running team. Firing off another coordinated strike with his dogbrained drone, M3chan1c was able to eliminate the remaining dobermans outside, watching them explode in fire and shrapnel as the runners took a moment to catch their breath.

Looking through the camera provided by the datatap, the runners got a sight of one of their targets and some hostages, a quick trace showed them exactly where they were looking. Stepping up to the main door, Throwback and a cloaked Doberman drone pried open the front door, spotting a de-powered, empty hallway, thinking better of this path, the runners dipped back out, standing up on a physical barrier produced by Dez as they cut open a window on the second floor. Before the runners stepped inside, M3chan1c called out a tripwire, looking up, the runners spotted a grenade bouquet, with another... and another... Sending M3chan1c's drone in first, the rigger was able to quickly disarm the series of explosives throughout the floor, carefully stockpiling the grenades for potential use later as the runners made their way to the hostage's room.

Getting a call from J, the runners were suddenly informed of the missing information on their third HVT, a physical adept Orc, following his profile, the runners immediately groaned, requesting whether or not the HVT could be harmed, but not killed in the pursuit of rescuing them. With a promise of digression from Johnson, the runners planned to go as non-lethal as possible against the potentially mind-controlled HVT.

On the way, a series of propane tanks were spotted through the floor, coated in nails dripping with a red substance. Cracking open the door with their technomancer abilities, Throwback opened the door, being alerted to a pair of icons in the room, he reached up, popping open the vent, one of the HVT's dropped out of the ceiling, setting the runner's numbers to 2/3 targets.

As the first HVT's and standard hostages were extracted, one of the pair, the news reporter, produced a detonator, warning the runners of a bomb placed downstairs in the hostile team's van, linked to the specific detonator through a radio signal. Taking the device, gathering the signal, and then disarming the physical mechanism, the runners were patched the radio signal needed to blow up the van in case of emergency. Having disarmed the enemy team's ace in the hole, the runners made their way upstairs, carefully opening the door with m3chan1c's drone and sending in a fly spy, all that could be found was a pile of cellphones and a camera smeared with jam.

Realizing the distraction, the runners made their way downstairs, stacking up the same way before, the runners opened the door, triggering a kitchen timer which sent the group running, expecting a trap of some sort. Though, as the runners sprinted off, the sounds of nails on tile sounded off, following the group, eventually revealing a fox with a jacket and a trode setup mounted on it. After a token attempt from Dex to calm the critter down and bring it back over his way, the creature continued to sprint off for the exit, Sensing a potential threat, M3chan1c's drone UNDER ORDERS FROM THE PARTY AND VERY DEFINITELY ON AUTOPILOT AND NOT ANYTHING ELSE proceeded to taze the ever-living shit out of it, sending the creature screeching and sprinting towards the rest of the evacuees.

Stepping into the first floor, a rack of employee of the month portraits were first seen, parading the fox as the most responsible and beloved member of the entire team, after an agreement that it was probably completely deserved, the runners investigated the first floor, not spotting anything majorly threatening, and finding the garage empty of anything concerning. Making their way to the massive steel basement door, the entry team got to work prying the doorway open, feeling the background count raise suddenly as the lab was exposed, with essence-consuming fungus coating the area, and the many corpses laying across the floor plan.

Not wanting to die an excruciating death, the physical runners sent out their personal drones to join M3chan1c's in the basement. Scanning over the area, it appeared that there must have been some kind of containment breach causing the infestation and killing both the opfor team and the researchers down below. Dipping in further, the drones were able to spot their target, alive, and still within a sealed room. As the runners got to work preparing their extraction strategy, M3chan1c's rotodrone pinged the party with a warning of approaching hostiles, jumping into the sniper bot, M3chan1c watched a drone with a machine gun zip into the building before he could bring his weapon to bear, spotting a twitching troll with a massive sword making their way for the entryway the runners had made, he started the fight by sending a round square into the metahuman's shoulder. As the shot impacted, an adept moving at a speed so high it skipped the drone's sensors sprinted into the building and slammed into Throwback, stunning the runner a bit, who retaliated with their shotgun, barely missing the speedster, as well as a jostled shot from Dez bouncing a napalm spell about the room, missing both enemy and ally as it bounced off the wall, then back towards the target who managed to barely dodge it with a sprint for his very life.

Swinging with a scabbard-covered sword, the troll sam stormed into the room, taking a swing at the runners and barely missing Dex, with the rotodrone retaliating with a laser blast, downing the troll, and forcing the speedy adept to flee with the rest of his team, giving the runners some breathing room.

Aftermath

The runners managed to remotely free their final VIP, escorting them out, as well as the downed troll. After discussing the fact that this runner had gone non-lethal in going after the party, it was decided they would dump them somewhere obscure as a token of respect between runners.

Just as this was finished, the runners gathered over at the van, eventually meeting up with Johnson. Answering some question, and explaining just how much he DIDN'T want to know what they found down below, the runners were quickly paid, and made their separate ways.

Rewards

20k Nuyen (RVP 10)

10 karma (RVp 10)

bonus 2k Nuyen

40k worth of gear rewards. if anything azzies make (19 avi and below)

Optional

Throwback can take one with matrix II at chargen

Ahriman can take Poor link at chargen

M3chan1c can take Instinctive Optimization at chargen

Dez can take Sensei for Alchemy at chargen

Guillermo Rodríguez at 4/2 (5 RVP)

Miss Lucy 2/3 (4 RVP)

Game Quotes

"I say this with the utmost love, but I hope you TPK tomorrow" -Asmo, of course

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

M3chan1c:"Well, kinda felt fun to be the HTR team for once. Though, the best part was watching those assholes who tried to kill us with those grenade traps get caught up in their own mess downstairs, though, just hope it didn't cause any problems for those who got exposed to it. All in all, a good payday."

Dezeroth A'kyer: "Well. That was fascinating. Overall, our J this time around was a fellow I'd be happy to work for in the future. The reporter was quite cute, too! Hoh hoh hoh."

Throwback: "That was an interesting one. Rival runner team, dead opfor, rescued hostages, no blood what's not to love. Better yet upgraded cyberlimbs!"

Angra Mainyu: "Working for Aztechnology, now, am I? The decker and rigger had to perform a great deal, as did Dez. My abilities are highly specialized, so at times I feel bad over having my allies overwork themselves. However, I should keep my priorities straight: I am the one who denies the astral. Many can fire guns and swing blades, few can reject the other world as I can. I concentrate on my work so they could concentrate on theirs. This I must keep close to my heart."