Worlds Collide

Worlds Collide
Date 2081-12-15 GM Asmodeus Location Renton Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Skraacha	Renton Crusade
Stygian Samsara Skimmer Sp4rks	Night Hunter Troll Killers Humanis Policlub True Blood
Casualties and losses
	Night Hunter Leader

Summary

In which the runners are called in as reinforcements to a Skraacha community under siege from a metaracist group

The Meet

At 5PM on a Wednesday evening, a signal for help is sent out among fixer groups of the Seattle area by Ghaz, a Skraatcha lieutenant promising a substantial bounty for anyone competent helping him defend his community from metaracist assailants. The message is heeded by Samsara, Stygian, Skimmer and Sp4rks, who all make their way ASAP towards the pinged location by their respective fixers. On the way however, when Sp4rks and Stygian got friendly tips from heavily chromed human gangers to avoid the area, Samsara and Skimmer got straight up insulted and mocked by those very people. Ghaz welcomes the runners reinforcing his ranks in what is an old abandoned parking building, with pick up trucks parked several floors below and loaded with ordnance. A young elven boy Samsara and Skimmer have met before comes by to serve the runners coffee before delivering ammo belts to the ground floor.

The meet was quick and to the point, Ghaz is expecting an assault from groups of metaracists gathering around the building, and he wants to keep his people as safe as possible. To this end, he gives to the runners liberty to do what they can to this end. The meet coming to a close, the team started talking about various approaches to the situation, quickly evaluating the enemies outnumber allied forces three to one. Suddenly, an explosion happens right above their heads, at the second level of the parking building. They run upstairs to see a newly created hole in the front wall as well as a woman with a loudspeaker stepping forth at the frontal barricade, beaming confidence and sporting a cowboy attitude to boot. She addresses the Skraacha, demanding they surrender, to which Ghaz responds to by telling her to fuck off and that he won't risk the lives of his people by surrendering them to her group. A spirited back and forth follows, after which the cowboy woman challenged Ghaz to a stand off to spare lives on both sides. The time is set for twelve o'clock, noon the following day. Whoever remains standing at the end of that face-off will get to choose the terms of surrender. Seeing that as the best way to protect his people, and maybe not piss off Warboss, Ghaz accepts the deal.

The Plan

The situation being seemingly defused for a time, the team got to work to try and ensure a satisfactory outcome for Ghaz. Sp4rks tried to hack the woman's commlink, but failed at doing so. However, Skimmer got a recording of the scene that he passed to Sparks to try and find more information about the woman. Turns out she is named Carolina, and is known for being an enforcer in of the Humanis policlub, she has a reputation of efficiency and mercy, often leaving survivors in her wake after her operations. Skimmer used the time of the search to repair the destroyed wall with pieces of metal, while Stygian and Samsara mulled over plans to keep any assault from happening. A second search later, the team identified a probable Humanis operation location where they could find hopefully some blackmail material, or more info on their assailants at least. Looking at the place in the matrix however leads very little information, as all Sp4rks can see are commlinks, and no host to infiltrate from a distance.

The precious time obtained by the delaying of the confrontation is used to evacuate Ghaz's people, they took the underground sewer system to find a safer place to stay for a day or so.

The Run

The team finds old abandoned buildings in a generally seedy area of Redmond where the Humanis meeting place is supposed to be, the only thing giving it away is the presence of guards on the roof of a building and cameras. The main objective of this operation being to gather blackmail material, the team formulated a plan to connect to one of the cameras on the roof, but before that Samsara had a more pressing matter, a watcher spirit was looking over the parking lot. The spirit was very concentrated at a Manhole cover with blood traces leading out of it, which facilitated Samsara's work, easily getting rid of the spirit's annoying presence while not being spotted by cameras and rooftop guards alike. Sp4rks got to work getting to the cameras physically, passing through a nearby abandoned building to get to the roofs.

The doors to the building being locked, he opted for the quick solution of shooting the lock with silenced subsonic ammo, but nearby guards heard the noise. The guards got out and he quickly slipped in the building, being welcomed in a dark room forcing him to use his commlink's flash to see anything, while the guards seemed to not find the source of the noise that alerted them. Sp4rks saw while searching for stairs up to the roof three crates with a logo on it, he did not understand what this logo was but, by sending the image through DNI to the team, Samsara could identify the logo as being a mix of Humanis's and of the Night hunters. Sp4rks tried opening the crates with no success, so he decided to get back to his current objective : getting to the roofs.

Once on the roof, Sp4rks hacked the commlinks of the two guards, conning them into leaving their posts by passing himself as their boss ordering them to come down to help their colleagues. Samsara seized this opportunity to sneak on the roof where the cameras actually were and sneakily connected a data tap to the cables coming out of the camera, giving Sp4rks access to an hidden host where he will proceed to disarm data bombs protecting 5 files and link them to the team on DNI. Samsara however could hear in her position an argument going on right under her, between Carolina and a man. The man seemed to be peeved at Carolina for having called off the assault, while she insists that this is the best way forward, as their objective is not to remove the trogs but to rid the sewers of the presence of ghouls that are becoming problematic around the city. The argument continued for some time, gradually heating up until a gunshot made itself heard, Carolina warning the others as to what happens when her people loose sight of the objective.

On the 'trix, the files extracted by Sp4rks gave information about the interests of the groups composing what they decided to call the "Renton Crusade", the main organizer was the Humanis policlub, joined by the Night Hunters and the True Blood Group who were enthusiastic about ripping Trogs to shred, and finally the Troll Killers joined for the political aspect. Another file worried Samsara, it was a eerily precise and accurate map of the Trogs smuggling routes, and she asked Sp4rks to delete it from the host, but he was unable to do so after multiple attempts. Having gotten exactly what they came for, the team opted to try and take the crates with them in the car, but they could not lift them. Seeing that, they still tried and succeded at opening one of them, it was a pressurized crate with a big container plastered of bio-hazard warnings, clearly a dangerous substance. Stygian phoned up a contact of his to get more info about that substance, and she told him she will get back to him in about two hours. She however made a request of him not to escalate the situation, seemingly very worried about it. When they departed Sp4rks suggested blowing the crates up, but the team advised him not to do so, and so they got back to the parking lot before the event started.

Two new faces got in the parking as reinforcements, they were more chrome than Troll and had no mouth to communicate, so they did so through AR, Ghaz tell the team they are reinforcements sent by Warboss. The team got about twenty minutes to set up the scene, Skimmer helped Sp4rks plant and hide neurostun gaz grenades around the place where the stand off will take place, while Stygian climbed onto the roof of the parking to get an advantageous position on the ennemies and Samsara meditated, to center herself before a situation that can turn very ugly very quickly.

The time is up, and the Bad Guys(tm) make their entrance right on cue, making quite the intimidating display. To even the odds between Ghaz and Carolina, Samsara passed some kamikaze to the traditionally anti drug Ghaz, who accepted them for the sake of protecting his people. The situation is tense, and the stand-off is approaching, Sp4rks stay at the ready to act first and give help to Ghaz for his performance, but he is slower than Carolina, and she fire right at Ghaz, but his armor takes the brunt of the damage. Acting just a little too late, Sp4rks calibrates the team, with a rare zeal affording more time for them to act. Ghaz, in a Kami fuelled rage, seize his pistol loaded with a single EX-EX round, and fires it right at Carolina, who gets hit hard, the explosion causing her now unconscious body to be knocked back some meters before coming to a stop.

The night hunter that was perched high did not accept this defeat tho, and attacked the group straight away, but Skimmer put him down from his superior position, as if he was smitten by the gods themselves. Samsara started to trash talk the unconscious night hunter, but in the middle of doing so Ghaz, in his rage, executed the guy from a bullet to the head. About a minute passes and Carolina gets back up with the help of her entourage, and comes to the team and Ghaz, where she reveals that she was mostly here to get rid of the ghouls, but will leave them alone as she promised, to what Ghaz tells her that she should have just asked to begin with, and to fuck off for now as he is not in any state to discuss. Samsara also specified to Carolina that we knew about her Bio-hazard weapons, which surprised her somewhat, before she turned her heels and walked away.

Aftermath

Ghaz showed to the team a stash of custom made "Skraacha Troglodyte" commlinks, giving them as compensation for their help.

Rewards

- 4,000 Nuyen

- Jailbroken Fairlight Caliban "Skraacha Troglodyte" OR 4,000 Nuyen

- 10 Karma

- 2 CDP

- 2 Skraacha Faction Reputation

For Stygian only: 1 Chip for Amelie Dupont

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Samsara

You know, I'm really starting to think that squatting in Renton isn't worth the trouble, but damn if I'm going to give those drekheads an inch. I gotta respect Ghaz for putting so much on the line for his people, even speed-balling betakami when I could tell he doesn't like drugs just so that he could be fast and tough enough to win that gunfight; frag that was close though, when that woman drew first I thought it was over and we'd have to make a run for it just to get away from the mob. I'm more than a little concerned about that whole "Renton Crusade" thing though, not to mention those crates full of what were probably bio-weapons... feels like that's going to be a problem sometime down the line.

Honestly I'd have liked to have killed that Carolina woman and all those gang lieutenants right there while we had the chance just as a show of force so that they don't get any ideas about messing with the Skraacha or Ghaz's community, but that probably wouldn't have worked out too well for us in the long run. Besides, they want to deal with the ghoul horde too, which should probably take priority over us fighting eachother; at least she was willing to listen to reason, which was good for us. I still honestly can't believe that she was true to her word, but I guess even metaracist assholes need a code when they're that chromed up, lest they end up like those Night Hunter freaks - makes me glad I have religion.

Skimmer

Another call from Ghaz, another emergency for his people to deal with. This time anti-metahuman racists groups determined to clean out Renton once and for all. Now, I can get behind killing for business, but just because a person looks different? No justification there. These guys are lathered up and ready to slaughter, and all because they don't like the way we look. Seriously? Regardless, Ghaz needs the help, and he's paying so I'm in. The opposition looks to be tough, with a no-nonsense cowgirl looking to make it big with a challenge out of the blue to a real life duel with Ghaz. I like it. But just to keep things on the up and up, the team does a bit of investigation into the opposition, and discovers that they are held together by the thinnest of threads, and the real objective seems to be the ghoul menace, not the trogs. Armed and somewhat confused with this knowledge, we fall back and wait for the big show. Carolina beats Ghaz to the punch, putting a .50 cal slug into his chest, but thanks to the goodies supplied by Samsara, (and sheer toughness) Ghaz manages to stay upright long enough to put an explosive bullet into Carolina, knocking her the fuck out. The Night Hunter sees this and unable to contain himself, leaps into the fray, ready to eat a stream of bullets from yours truly, putting him down next to his glorious leader. Ghaz, enraged by this betrayal of the terms of the duel, loads another round and puts it straight into the Night Hunter's skull, killing him as a warning to the rest. Carolina manages to come to just in time to stop anything further from going down, begrudgingly admitting defeat, and yielding the field to Ghaz, at least for now. Weary, and a bit beat up, Ghaz finally succumbs to his injuries and drops, only to be carted off in Sp4rks' medi-drone. Quite the adventure, all things considered. I look forward to future calls from Ghaz; gotta admit he never fails to deliver.

Sp4rks

When i received a call for help to defend a group of guys in Renton, i have to admit i did not expect to face off against four of the worst meta-racist organizations in Seattle. Once i met Ghaz and his people tho, it was hard to back down. The guys really looked like they weren't here to cause trouble and they stood no chance without us against the crowd gathering before the building. After having discussed some with Ghaz, the ennemy cow boy lady made her entrance by BLOWING UP A WALL, you gotta admit that even tho her opinions are shit, the drekhead has a flair for the dramatic. It turned out that they did not open fire instantly to our relief, as we were thoroughly unprepared at this point, they even managed to strike a deal : a stand off the very next day ! If you told me i would ever see that outside of the pride challenges of the French nobles, i would most likely have been looking forward to today ever since.

Not gonna lie, i expected the bastards to betray their word, but we would learn later that they did not in fact do so. The lady for all her faults turned out to be quite the respectable person, outside of her shitty opinions. The team helped me get access to the network of one of Humanis's bases, where we learnt who was part of the assault and why. There was in fact 4 different factions putting aside their differences toward a common goal, really it could have been beautifull if not for, you know, the metaracism. We also discovered they stockpiled chemical weapons, or something similar justifying so many biohazard stickers. I suggested to the team to blow it up, but they opted for prudence. I was somewhat frustrated, but really whatever.

Back at the Parking, Skimmer helps me plant and hide my neurostun grenades in case the cow girl tries something funny, and we wait 20 minutes for them to arrive. Right on time they do their entrance, the night hunters crawling on walls is a trick i admit not having liked too much. Ghaz takes Samsara up on her offer to do drugs to give him an edge, and he does well because in the stand off he actually shrugged a bullet as if it was nothing dangerous, and retaliated with an explosive round that straight up sent the cow girl flying back 3 meters at least. Really, a trid to play back occasionally !

Stygian

Hadn't done work for the Ork community before. So when I got the call for the run, I was looking forward to it after a long vacation. For a first impression, I'd say they were no different than the rest of metahumanity. They have their wants and needs. Why should they be excluded from their exercise of freewill? It wasn't new, but it was new shade to see this sort of thing in.

When I got on-site, the meta-racists had thugs and chrome gangers "playing" at budget rent-a-cop. I did what any smart person does in that situation; claim to be a journalist, start asking a bunch of uncomfortable questions and bitch about my demanding and unreasonable boss. They wave me through, looking relieved to just have me out of their hair. Some people just don't enjoy the spotlight when they have it.

Ghaz was an interesting sort with his rustic rough and tumble look, complete with a cowboy hat and a badge. He explained that the meta-racists were up in arms and wanting to burn them out. He needed us to get them to back off. Eventually, after a blown barricade and some shouting across the lines, the rest of the team had me layout that it would be best to take a deal that involved a "high-noon duel". The meta-racist mob backed off and I and the rest of the team tracked their leadership down. After poking around and listening in on their meetings, found out a few things about the mob. The first is that Carolina was getting some backing from another group with Humanis sentiments. Second, through her the mob was being provided with nasty bio-weapons. Lastly, this mob, that calls itself the "Renton Crusade" is having problems because of a recent rash of ghoul attacks from the sewers.

After making a private call to Amelie about the ghoul attacks in Renton and the forming of a "Crusade". She eventually got back to me and said that it is a feral ghoul infestation. Unfortunately, she was unable to exert any control over the situation and expressed concern that the conflict be defused. So after everything was said and done, it came down to a scene taken from an old spaghetti-western trid. Oddly enough Carolina kept her word and withdrew her crusade, but not before a chromed up Night Hunter was gunned down for not liking the development.

Ghaz was pretty spent by the whole ordeal. As part of our payout we got some rebranded comlinks called "Skraacha Troglodyte". Have to give a clapp and say "Way to get your mark out there".