There Goes the Neighborhood

There Goes the Neighborhood
Date 2081-11-25 GM Sarcarian Location Loveland, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Ancients Laesa Syndicate	Gianelli Family	Kenran-kai
81 H.Rose King Beef Oathbane Roadkill (Inactive)	Mafia Mooks	Yakuza Mooks Wakagashira-hose

Summary

In which the team assist the expansion of Laesa operations into Loveland by hitting a trio of syndicate-controlled enterprises.

Background

Argent has been hard at work following the events of Pressing the Attack, swiftly moving to consolidate territory and use the information gained from interrogating his mafia and yakuza prisoners to plan his next move. He has identified three targets of interest – a mafia-run warehouse used for drug smuggling and distribution, a yakuza-run BTL den, and a back-ally street doc whose affiliations he has been unable to determine. Wishing to take control of these enterprises but not wanting to make an overtly violent move using the Ancients, he has called in runners to clear them out and secure the premises so that his ganger allies can come in and loot anything of value to him and secure a Laesa syndicate foothold.

The Meet

The team are told to meet at a dive bar in Loveland, the faded signage of which identifies the establishment as “Silver Linings". There are some shake-ups getting there (King Beef choses to bicycle all the way from Redmond to get his cardio in, and 81 takes public transit, which is always a gamble – thankfully though neither are attacked by gangers), but they are all able to arrive on time and uninjured. They find the bar is covered in paint which some new Ancients recruits are working on cleaning up, while their employer is drinking with a gang boss and conversing in Sprerethiel in the back room (the team overhear the conversation as a few of them get drinks, but none of the team speak elf-talk).

Coming out to greet the runners, Argent gets right to business – he tells them about the targets he wants them to hit, and offers them 4000 nuyen per head, per target. Everyone agrees that this seems like a reasonable offer, and none try to press their luck pushing for more cash, so he presents them with the intel that he’s gathered on them so far; he also asks that they avoid unnecessary bloodshed and collateral damage to the premises, and that they specifically avoid killing the doc or any made men, but to bring any recalcitrant people back to him so that he can have a private talk with them – if they do, he’ll extend his contact information to them and considerations for future work. They accept the terms.

The Plan

Rose takes a look over the information that the team was provided – not being particularly trustful of Johnsons or fixers, he resolves to do a bit of legwork to confirm the intel. 81 and Oathbane join him in that task, while King Beef has Roadkill give him a lift back to his apartment so that he can pick up a piece of equipment. Oathbane has her data sprite do a matrix search on the street doc’s clinic, while 81 goes to scope out he BTL den on foot and Rose hops in his vehicle to do a drive-by of the warehouse (and subsequently the BTL den and clinic, as they’re all within about a mile of eachother, on the boarder between different syndicate’s territory).

The warehouse proves to be moderately well-defended and in the process of being refurbished – half the windows have been recently repaired, while the others are boarded up. Out front by the loading door is a burly guard, while another lurks in the side ally near a locked door. There is no host, just some old pre-crash wired systems that were never retrofitted, but about 10 commlinks can be spotted inside.

The BTL den has some addicts and squatters milling about, as well as a metal security door at which patrons can make their requests through a slot; 81 is distracted by the makeshift neon kanji sign (which Oathbane is able to translate, determining that they peddle CalHots and Kong-chips, though since none of the team do BTLs this means little to them), but Rose has keener eyes and determines that one of the vagrants is actually a guard from the bulge of a gun in his pocket and he way he fakes being chipped up.

The street doc’s clinic meanwhile has no obvious guards, just a sign in a back ally and a locked door. Oathbane’s search returns little of interest, just hits on the shadow community version of Yelp from patrons leaving generally satisfied reviews (“relatively clean, can fix cyberware, the doc doesn’t ask questions, is willing to make a body disappear for a modest fee”, that sort of thing) with no indication that he’s affiliated with one particular group over another (there’s speculation of being backed by the Triads, but they put that down to bigoted assumptions since the doctor is evidently Chinese).

King Beef and Roadkill meanwhile return to Redmond so that KB can retrieve his Rapid Egress System that he received as payment for his last job – Roadkill is incredulous that the minotaur has a jetpack now, as is the rest of the team when he declares his intention to find a way to put it to use on this gig. Meeting back up, the team discuss their options and strategies; Rose, as the most consummate professional among the team, assumes the role of coordinator and overwatch. After assessing the targets and looking over his notes, he determines that the warehouse is likely the most well-guarded and they should probably hit it first before seeing what they’re up against with the other two.

The Run

Part 1 - The Warehouse:

Kitting up for some violence, the team roll over to the warehouse. Roadkill notices the HVAC system on the roof and an idea occurs to him – he can climb up there and drop a neurostun grenade inside, then Oathbane can use the vents to circulate it and vent it off after everyone is knocked out while 81 and King Beef take out the guards out front and hold the doors shut. The team agrees with this course of action, so 81 hops out of the van and confidently walks up to the guard out front, telling him to frag off or she’ll kill him. He laughs, exposes his pistol, and tells her to say that again, so she does – he quick draws and says to repeat herself again, and she does before beating him out in a surprise roll to grab the gun and bend the barrel with her bare hands. This does the trick to give her the bonus intimidate dice she needs, and the goon wanders off to reconsider his life choices.

King Beef chills out front while the giant heads into the ally and tries the same trick with the other guard – this one is quicker on the uptake however and draws his pistol while making a commlink call. Oathbane puppeteers his link to shut down while 81 beats him into a bloody pulp (avoiding killing him, but definitely knocking more than a few teeth loose thanks to combat monster). While the guards outside are are distracted by all of this, Roadkill manages to scale the side of the building and plant a datatap on the old wired HVAC system, allowing Oathbane to take control of it. He drops a gas grenade filled with Neurostun X inside, and after using the system to distribute it the chemseal-less goons inside are rapidly overwhelmed; they attempt to make for the exits, but the trogs are able to hold both of the doors shut long enough for everyone inside to pass out while the team techno squelches their comms.

Inside, Rose gets to work restraining everyone and looking for tattoos indicating rank while Oathbane goes through their commlinks to see who’s in charge and the rest of the team take inventory. They find a bunch of drugs, but King Beef is mildly disappointed to see that there is no K-10 among the haul, so nobody decides to help themselves. Instead they call Argent, who sends over a quartet of Ancients to secure the building and start hauling off the most valuable drugs to be fenced among their network, and one of the green-haired elves presents the team with the first third of their payment.

Part 2 - The BTL Den:

Having taken on the mob with minimal violence and no deaths among the opfor or injuries among the team, everyone is filled with confidence as they roll up to the BTL Den. Roadkill has a monofilament chainsaw he’s been dying to use, and plans to cut through the security door while the muscles watch his back and 81 takes on the place’s low-grade host to deal with the spider and take over the infrastructure. Everyone takes their drugs, and 81 hops out of the van, strolling right up to the door and smashing the nearby camera; the guard out front takes a shot at her from behind with his pistol (barely causing stun damage with ADPS rounds, such is life), so King Beef steps out crackling with lightning to stand above him menacingly while Roadkill gets to work with his chainsaw cutting through the door. 81 takes a swing at the guard, pissed off at being shot, but he dodges and she ends up putting a hole in the concrete steps behind him with smashing blow instead and is satisfied with that. Rose steps up with his machine gun and commands the guy to stand down and identify who’s in charge, making his best attempt at intimidation – he responds in Japanese with what sounds like “gaijin scum”, so King Beef teaches him to mind his manners with an electric punch that knocks him out.

Meanwhile, on the matrix, Oathbane and her sprite mark the host and head inside without bothering to run silent – instead, she immediately spots out the spider and commands her sprite to attack it with a data spike (the spike bounces back and causes a bit of damage to the sprite, but it then bounces back the spider’s subsequent data spike to even things out). A few micro-seconds of slinging malicious code at eachother later and the techno has overwhelmed the decker, knocking him out and effectively taking control of the host (as the IC poses little threat to her powerful LP); hearing the Japanese, she broadcasts a message over the intercom system repeating Rose’s command in the same tongue.

In meatspace, Roadkill is nearly finished cutting through the door when a gun emerges from the slot in it and shoots him in the head – he tanks it like a champion, and the bullet bounces off of his partial cyberskull after doing a small bit of damage to it (ADPS really isn’t all its cracked up to be, frankly). Unbothered, he just continues putting the chainsaw to work, managing not to injure himself or others with it thanks to the power of edge. 81 though is a bit annoyed that people keep shooting guns off, so she bursts through the now-off-its-hinges door and hits the yak behind it in the face, hard. King Beef steps inside through the now trog-sized hole and takes a swing at the person in the security cage which leads to the rear of the building, tearing through the mesh but failing to strike his target. Rose just sighs as the techno emerges from VR, having her translate the Japanese responses to his orders and determining that there is a Wakagashira-hose – an underboss – in charge here.

As the trogs drop mooks left and right (literally, with left and right hooks), Rose tells them to get the boss while he secures the mooks with restraints. Oathbane joins them in making their way deeper into the BTL den while Roadkill stands guard, gently dealing with a beetle addict who wanders up to ask about the new chips they got in (completely heedless of the gunfire and sounds of violence). Roadkill evidently feels bad for the poor man, but his medical knowledge doesn’t really tell him a lot about how to treat BTL addiction and he doesn’t have the meds to ease withdrawal symptoms, so he just shrugs and hands him one of the CalHots for free – the addict grins at his good fortune and wanders off whistling a jaunty tune thanks to his moodchip while Roadkill and Rose share a look.

In the rear, a yak bodyguard opens up on King Beef with full auto (soaked handally by the minotaur mysad – the bullets just bunce off of him as he walks right past the bodyguard and through the wall of the boss’ office). Oathbane does her best with her SMG and actually manages to tag the yak before 81 puts him down. In the office, the Wakagashira-hose proves surprisingly nimble as he avoids King Beef’s haymakers and slashes at him with a monowhip, coming quite close to putting him down for the count; however he manages to stay on his feet (well, hooves) and knock the yak out, throwing him over his shoulders and carrying him out to the van before passing out from drain while the rest of the team secure the premises and call up the Ancients (again none of them steal the merchandise, though Oathbane does find the decker’s room and grabs his deck to bring back to Argent).

Part 3 - The Clinic:

After returning to the bar and handing the deck and the yak over to Argent to deal with (he assures them that he will administer Laes so that the man doesn’t remember them), the team take a little time to patch up their own wounds and recuperate a bit before heading over to the street doc. King Beef is slap-patched back to consciousness and press-ganged into playing the part of a prospective patient so that they can get a look at what’s inside and make sure there aren’t any gun turret-shaped surprises waiting for them; he agrees, and summons up a spirit to take a look at the astral as well, just to be safe. However, there is evidently a ward covering the building on the astral, so he just shrugs and dismisses it.

The team work together to shoulder the minotaur and “help” him towards the door, where a camera and an intercom wait; the doc looks them over and allows them inside, though he says only one person can come into the office at a time and the rest will have to wait in the waiting room. Looking King Beef over, he realizes that the damage is from drain and says he can’t do anything to help him, but he does offer some bliss for the pain; KB accepts and heads back out so that Oathbane can try to talk to him and convince him that its in his best interest to accept the Laesa’s protection “offer”, while 81 takes the bliss and injects it just for fun (managing to barely avoid becoming addicted to powerful opioids).

With Roadkill and Rose feeding her lines through DNI, Oathbane tries to put on the charm and get a bit of information out of the street doc before putting the screws to him and attempting to play the part of intimidating Laesa representative. He is less-than-frightened however (a judge intentions roll reveals that he is much more scared of something else than he is of the Laesa), asking just who the frag she thinks she is and hurling ethnic slurs and such. 81 hears the commotion through her drug-induced haze and smashing blows her way through the door to the office, so the doctor grabs a syringe and takes Oathbane hostage with it, demanding that they leave at once.

81 just laughs and steps forward, so the doc blusters a bit, asking if he thinks he’s afraid of them and saying “whatever you do to me, Agamemnon will do worse”; the giant just ignores him and puts her reach to work, seizing the initiative and managing to crush the syringe (and the doc’s cyberhand) before he can inject the poor techno with it, cutting her own hand in the process and narcojetting herself (she doesn’t notice thanks to the bliss, managing to soak enough stun damage to stay on her feet). One punch to the noggin later and the street doc is out cold and thrown over her shoulder, with Oathbane managing to remain composed enough not to break down in terror in front of the hardened criminals.

Aftermath

Shaking their heads at the doc's refusal to cooperate, the team call up the Ancients to loot the clinic of cyberware and bring the doc back to Argent. He’s a little miffed that they roughed him up (though he is assuaged when told that he had one of the team hostage and that they had little choice), and as puzzled at who this “Agamemnon” might be (not being a student of history) as the others, but says he’ll Laes the doc so he doesn’t remember them before having a long talk with him about the benefits of paying into the Laesa’s protection racket. Satisfied with the team’s performance, and that they didn’t leave a trail of bodies leading back to him and his associates, he rewards them with their final round of credsticks and a “job well done”, as well as his contact information should they wish for it (as Oathbane is already in his stable of runners, he says that he’ll owe her a favor for bringing him the cyberdeck instead of running off with it to fence the data/hardware herself, as the used deck alone is enough to pay the team’s fees).

Rewards

• 12,000 nuyen
• 5 karma
• 2 CDP
• +1 Ancients rep
• +1 Laesa rep
• Optional Contact: Argent (C1/L3 Fixer) for 3 RVP or 6 CDP

Game Quotes

81: [holding the knocked-out teeth of her latest victim] "Hey, if I put these under my pillow, does the tooth fairy accept them if they're not mine?"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

King Beef

Few things here kids.

1. Bullets are a mind-over-matter deal, if you don't mind it don't matter.

2. Monowhips hurt like drek, don't let them hit you if you can help it. If they do, hope you're one tough mother like I am.

3. Street Docs can't help with Magic shit but Bliss helps keep the pain away. Numb is better but use whatcha got.

Oathbane: I haven't felt this thrill or rush in some time that actually being in danger with the chance of it all going wrong for me, haha ha .we move on to our first target a warehouse with connections to the mob moving about so we advise a plan multiple to be able to takedown them we better go with a simple option take control of the main ventilation system then pump the room full of gas rather crude but effective method we just had to deal with the people on the outside so they didn't get the word on the inside .with a quick line of code from my side I managed to disable the commlinks outside so my team can mop them up and then once Roadkill got on top and deployed his Neurostun grenade along with the datatap . It was only a matter of time to open up the ventilation systems and the doors to make sure the occupants don't die, went without a hitch.   

the den not my smartest decisions but due to knowing how the matrix works if he was around it would have been problematic for my team said it said it's a barge without attempting to hide myself to make myself the biggest target in the room for them to try to take me down. It was difficult battling against him in the cyber matrix world but overall I came out victorious and gained control of the systems, haha around that time my team has already cleared out the place only a few people proved to be a threat .once the other boss was taken care of I decided to go a bit of exploring found the spiders den and grab his deck, of course, I did have a thought of taking it for myself but I'd rather not it would be a poor display of my  professionalism

The next one another one of my bad decisions that had been a very precarious position, try to negotiate and persuade the doctor but acted it's a mix up of language barriers or the emotions riding high from my overconfidence  …it led to a very 's terrifying scene being held hostage …something…anyway back to the story I'm glad for 81 steppings in and knocking the doctor out. Only good thing it didn't lead to a blood bath or me coming to harm.