New Canaan

New Canaan
Part of Festering Infestation
Date 2082-01-02 GM Asmodeus Location Renton Underground Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Nameless	Humanis Policlub, Feral Ghouls & Skraacha
Nameless Ghaz Samsara Skimmer Relay Steel	Night Hunters, Knight-Errant mooks, Troll Killers, Humanis Killteams & Skraacha Grunts
Casualties and losses
None	A metric ton of Renton Crusaders and feral ghouls.

Summary

Team of daring runners try to get a hostile ocean of ghouls through a shooting gallery. Somehow, they succeed.

Background

The feral ghouls have been a long-standing issue in Renton, first threatening the Skraacha slums and then spilling to the surface, attracting the fury of Humanis through Carolina Petrovski and her Renton Crusade. Only one man, Nameless, tries to defend these unfortunate victims of Tamanous organ farming.

The Meet

Nameless invites Samsara to assist him as he's grown desperate and agitated by various forces closing in on his 'congregation' of feral ghouls. Samsara asks her fixer to make a job posting on the Haven, which a ragtag bunch of runners reply to. Relay's concerned by what he sees the second he arrives to the Tamanous drop site, but once the other two runners show up Samsara opens up a trid projector to see Nameless sharpening a long blade in The Pit, a dumpsite for organ legging victims. He's predicted that both the Skraacha's and Humanis' forces have begun making their move on his people and that he cannot remain in conventionally habitable areas. Despite its seemingly suicidal proposition, he's aiming to lead his hundreds of ghouls in the underground parts of Glow City where none will dare to follow them. He has little to offer, but the opportunity to shoot up Humanis is enough reason to convince most of them. Samsara tries to call up Warboss who seems to wish her luck with grim seriousness in his voice, Ghaz doesn't pick up the call and most of her ork friends promise to not participate in this operation, but know most will still attend. Infuriated, she makes the team promise not to attack the Skraacha.

The Plan

Planning to use disabling methods on the Skraacha fighters to the north and violent brutality on Humanis forces, they aim to lead the ghoul horde through the collapsed chokepoint in the Underground and let them wander the rest of the way without the runners' assistance. Nameless agrees to this plan and begins playing his tune as the Pied Piper of the Infected.

The Run

From moment one, things go wrong. Samsara and Steel get into a yelling match with an entire garrison's worth of ork grunts, and only Gork and Mork get convinced to ditch the fight; Relay's drones and Steel's aid not only cover the abandoned metro station in smoke but fill the Skraacha encampment with tear gas and pepper spray, forcing them into retreat. The ghoul horde rapidly approaches in the hundreds and the team pull them from the northern tracks to the south where Humanis killteams and Night Hunters prepare to fight another half of the horde. Samsara, Skimmer and Relay's drone crash upon them, being pinned between the swimming hordes of infected, hungry monstrosities to their backs and furious grenade fire and machine guns in front of them.

Heavy machine gun emplacements, fragmentation grenades, chromed up cyberpsychos, overlapping suppressing fire and lightning bolts of massive weight are thrown by the united crusader forces, but little by little the runners push forward. In a segment of worn-out sewer piping, however, they get caught up as Steel begins converging on their location and bumps into Ghaz -- the sheriff lets him go, clearly not enjoying his orders. Between three ambushing heavy machine gunners and brutal grenade throws into narrow corridors, the runners barely manage to wrest out inch after inch of advance before Nameless joins the fray. With incredible speed, the ghoul priest cuts in quite literally, giving Samsara, Relay and Skimmer the opening to begin their offensive while Steel distracts the machine gunners enough for Relay to start popping their heads like grapes.

With the final killteam disposed of, an ambushing force of Troll Killers and Night Hunters get cut down from behind by Skraacha grunts under Ghaz's orders. He nods to Samsara briefly before retreating, not wanting to sacrifice his people to a meaningless attack when the horde is clearly being controlled and led away.

Aftermath

Nameless later contacts Samsara with gratitude and offers all four of the runners his services as an old, knowledgeable mentor of physical adept and religious themes at the northern border of the SOX. A dangerous place to be, but few places are charitable to monsters. Who knows how he'll manage to eke out a living, but one thing is for sure.

That was a pilgrimage for the history books.

Rewards

• 16 Karma
• 2 CDP
• Optional Quality: Toughness (9 RVP)
• Optional Contact: Nameless, 4/1 Ghoul Priest (Cost: 4 RVP)

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Skimmer

Finding out I am doing another job with Samsara and Nameless wasn't such a bad thing. Not getting paid, not such a bad thing. Escorting nearly 300 feral ghouls through underground tunnels infested with Skraacha grunts and Humanis goons... Definitely a bad thing. It was run to remember, sneaking through tunnels with Samsara, escorted by Relay's drones and a massive Ork named Steel. Couldn't have asked for a better team. I got shot. Still surprised at that, it's been so long since something actually hit me. My fault for walking around the corner without proper surveillance techniques or even stealth. Gotta tighten up the brain and keep those defenses in place. Always. Anyway, we killed a lot of Humanis goons, and no Skraacha were injured by our team, so good run all round. Still can't believe Samsara jumped on a grenade for me. Crazy elf-ork; I grow fond of that martial badass. Relay, ever the professional, always with the right tool for the job, coming through with the pepper spray to halt an awkward conversation that could have lead to mass carnage with the Skraacha. And Steel, bullet magnet extraordinaire, quite the lucky duck it seems. Good run all, I'll see you in the shadows.

Samsara

Ho-lee God, I still can't believe that we survived all that! I mean, I tanked like three frag grenades and a whole bunch of bullets, and went down for the count before those saviour nanites kicked in and put me back on my feet - guess metal bones and bio-fibre laced skin have their benefits sometimes. Not to mention FBA - I think this armour might be the best purchase I've ever made (or at least the most expensive) with all the times it's saved me from getting turned into a ghoul at this point. Not that I don't have a role-model in Nameless, like the guy's cool as heck, but I think I prefer my own face rather than having to wear those of other people...

Serious props to the rest of the team on this one - Relay and Skimmer were absolute pros as usual and I can't think of two other runners I'd rather have watching my back for a job like this, and that Steel guy really handled himself really well too. Guy didn't back down from the Skraacha when they started shouting and pointing guns at him, plus I think I saw him on Urban Brawl one time. It was weird getting so pissed at the Skraacha, but honestly they were being drekheads about the whole thing and I'm glad that Gork and Mork at least saw reason, not to mention Ghaz and his crew coming in for a save at the end there. Things got hairy at points - I thought we were dead for sure at least a few times - but we pulled it off in the end, and now those ghouls have somewhere "safe". Not sure how they're gonna deal with the radiation and all that drek, but I guess they'll have to figure something out, and its better than being sandwiched between the Skraacha and a bunch of metaracist crusaders with heavy weapons. At least Warboss and Ghaz's crews have some new toys and a lot less enemies to worry about now, plus we did a nice thing for some unfortunates, so it all worked out.

Relay

This was--well, it was rough. I worried Samsara's particular blend of brash mixed with her distain for firing on the Skraacha was going to get us killed. She seemed mad at first about me separating their guns from our ghouls with gas grenades, but it was the only thing I could think of. Her calls for nonviolence paid off later as the Skraacha helped us light up the racist dillholes down the line.

Skimmer continues to prove himself an absolute combat monster, but that new blood Steel got separated from the pack and nearly died for it. That's on me...I'm supposed to be the eyes and the ears. I need to be better. Samsara nearly biffed it, as well. I thought she had, truth be told. I need to be better; teammates look to me as a leader and yet I'm not leading like I need to. Some day soon it's not going to be "I thought they were down", it's going to be trying to figure out how to get a body back if I don't get my shit together.