Breaking Up The Nest

Breaking Up The Nest
Date 2082-08-15 GM PatGriffin Location Redmond Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Bernie the Spider Boi	Insect Spirits
Artemisia Barracuda Tombstone Wick	One unlucky insect shaman A lot of ants
Casualties and losses
	A half-finished ant queen and the entire hive. Shaman captured and given to Bernie.

Summary

The Hellraisers Goon Squad (and Wick) storm a nascent Ant hive and obliterate it in under three seconds in an alchemy-fueled action sequence. They're rewarded with good feelings and mint condition "We Want The Big D" t-shirts from Dunkelzahn's presidential campaign.

Background

The team is contacted in the middle of various shenanigans; Arti and Tombstone are holding each other at gunpoint just after Tombstone joined the Hellraisers, Barracuda's keeping them from murderizing each other, and Wick is off in her lab doing !!science!! as any good modern alchemist should. Their fun is interrupted by a new job offer: Namely, one pointing to a disused drainage tunnel out near Loveland.

The Meet

After meeting up at the mouth of the tunnel and venturing forth into the darkness, the runners find themselves in a technology-filled hidey-hole par excellence. Wires hang from the ceiling, various electronics keep track of cameras all around the city, and drones make way for their entry. After reaching their presumed Johnson (who's very pointedly turned around in a high-backed chair to hide his face), they're asked to disarm themselves, which goes about as well as could be expected from a bunch of twitchy runners who just got invited into a spooky underground lair. After the near-total failure of that request, Bernie reveals himself in full.

The fact that he's a spider-themed changeling rigger that appears to be confined to a remote-controlled custom drone chair means that to deal with an insect hive he's noticed trying to take root, he needs some outside assistance. Specifically, he needs a team to move in, take out only the hive in a densely-populated area of the Redmond Barrens (which is why he hadn't just bombed the place), and report back afterwards. After some deliberation about the poor pay (and his attempt to pay in valuables taken from the corpses of former bug hosts), the team accepts the job and sets out to do recon.

The Plan

After getting a better look at the place, which seems to be a disused corporate office building in what used to be a decent part of Redmond, the team notes a few major things. Namely, the place has thralls waiting outside; the insect shaman in charge must've pulled some magic to get local gang toughs to serve as guards. Aside from that, however, the hive doesn't seem especially well developed. There's quite a bit of squabbling over whether to bust through the front door guns blazing or sneak in through the roof access, but the team finally settles on one easy solution:

Make a bunch of alchemical preparations from the two alchemists on their side, set them all off at the same time to become as badass as possible, and blitz the place one floor at a time with overwhelming force.

The Run

Surprisingly for a shadowrun, the plan goes off without a hitch. Artemisia and Wick prepare a wide variety of alchemical knick-knacks, including Combat Sense, Armor, Improve Strength, Comet, and an Elemental Aura (Electricity) prep from Wick in the form of a straight up car battery in a backpack-like harness. With the entire team juiced up to the gills on magical energy and some exceptionally good rolls that left both alchemists nearly unharmed despite their extended montage of magic, the raid begins with Barracuda sprinting across the street, past both of the stunned guards, and punching straight through both the front door and the mana barrier behind it.

What followed was a running battle across all three floors of the building, featuring immaculate shotgun-based crowd control from Tombstone and Artemisia, some terrifyingly efficient Comet preps Wick launched from a t-shirt cannon, and Barracuda smashing true form Ant spirits into each other with a car battery hooked up to his brass knuckles. After reaching the top floor, the runners find a ritual in progress; the shaman is currently attending to a giant chrysalis containing an in-progress Ant queen for the hive. That doesn't stop them from cold-clocking him, having Artemisia shove a live frag grenade straight into the chrysalis, and stomping out the last two Ant spirits as cleanup. All in about three seconds.

Aftermath

After their destruction of the hive, the runners disappear into the night as quickly as they came, albeit with the unconscious shaman in tow. They return to Bernie and hand over their little gift, which he receives with a somewhat disconcerting amount of excitement. After turning down the looted valuables in favor of whatever cold hard nuyen Bernie had on hand, the squad returns to their daily lives up six grand apiece and a kickass story.

Rewards

• 6k Nuyen (3 RVP) or 12k Gear Rewards of Foci, Foci Formula, Cyberdecks or Commlinks, or Drones (3 RVP)
• 10 Karma (10 RVP)
• 2 CDP
• Plus I want "I Want The Big D" Dunkelzhan Campaign Shirts

Optional Contacts

• Bernie the Spider Boi C2/L3 (4 RVP)
• Twitch C1/L1 (1 RVP)

Game Quotes

"Yes! The lesbian gets a 'We Want The Big D' shirt!"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Artemisia

This was ... good. Slaying the enemies of mankind, putting my skills of bloodshed to good use. It was nice. The Hellraisers, doing some good in the world. A welcome change from killing people for money and ... what Josephine had me doing. Perhaps this is a good change. Perhaps this can clear my mind.