Whatever It Takes

Whatever It Takes
Date 2086-12-22 GM Breeze Location Seattle Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Hellsing	Cutters
Exodus Utah Morgan Chipset	Various Goons/Guards Montrue (face) Blitz (samurai) Snake Eyes (shooter) Rigid (guard)
Casualties and losses
Utah nearly died and Morgan took quite a beating from her own spells and summonings, but the team didn't lose anyone	Snake Eyes was incapacitated, with Rigid being shot dead on the spot and Blitz being mind controlled and left back in the streets. A few goons at the compound died but not many were engaged with.

Summary

Blood for blood, an eye for an eye. One case of a meddlesome fixer attempting to dig back up a problem for one of the larger gangs in Seattle leads to them trying to get back at her by ransoming off her own employee. This led to immediate escalation, and an investigation into the whereabouts of someone under the care of a former prime runner with a penchant for incredible violence when she takes the kiddie gloves off. Drek was about to go down.

Background

Hellsing had never been able to get the idea of what happened to an old client's partner and would-be spouse out of her head: a competent independent who seemed magically capable and skilled in his own right just disappearing out of nowhere? That was odd. And she had been spending the better part of the year after getting Penelope out of Seattle trying to get a lead on what exactly had happened to that guy.

Unfortunately, the Cutters had already gotten a bone to pick with the guy a while back. And having to poke around his old haunts that they were watching like a hawk was not a good way to garner their attention. Hellsing was a bit too high of a target for the regular goons to get, but they didn't NEED to get her if they could get someone they care about. And one of the most vulnerable in Hellsing's circle was an elven girl who worked at her bar, one Rina Montoya. A girl who didn't get tooo involved with the shadier part of the business beyond greeting guests and taking care of things in the bar. She wasn't a fighter, at least not compared to the ork in there or the damn vampire bitch running the place, and her place wasn't exactly the most well defended.

One small problem: Hellsing noticed immediately, because for a girl who has a 20 minute commute and a decades long streak of not missing a beat at work, she was gone an hour and climbing. And Hellsing is a paranoid fucking bitch.

The Meet

The meeting was an incredibly rushed affair over in the host of the Devil's Kiss. Chipset, Exodus, Utah, and Morgan gathered up quick to hear what the incredibly grumpy fixer had to say. She didn't have much to go off of, just the location of her favorite worker's residence (why does she know that) and a price point of 10k nuyen per head, with a small bonus if they gave her a location and culprits for her to...work with afterwards. Morgan attempted to haggle that down, but the immediate glare very quickly shot that idea down as Hellsing made it abundantly clear that there was no negotiating this. She sent a face of the girl in case they could do a search, and then from there got moving all over Seattle.

The Plan

The leads here were dwindling, but having a great degree of information on the target herself would make things a lot easier. Chipset would do a long matrix search on absolutely everything he could dig up on the girl, from background info to any public footage of where she's been seen recently if at all. Meanwhile, physical investigation would give the crew a better chance of finding out what exactly might have transpired and who was responsible. Utah had a professional license and Morgan was a good liar with a pretty face, and to top it off Exodus was good at being where she shouldn't be. So they had the angles covered for when they went over there in the next hour.

The Run

The physical infil into Rina's residency - a small little gated apartment complex where the wage slaves tend to congregate - went about as well as it could. Morgan got them through the door by spinning a half truth of them investigating for the girl, which raised a noticeable eyebrow from the guard whom Exodus overheard speaking to someone about 'them coming early', but for now nothing happened. The team got a look inside her apartment (after Exodus picked the lock) and found that this room in particular had some signs of a recent struggle, apparently not cleaned up. They were able to get two major pieces of evidence: a syringe, and a sensor tag that they never identified (it was the Cutters') but could collect data from with Chipset's help. Morgan also managed to find a bit of a story of Rina being "helped out" by some rather tough looking customers in suits, whom a neighbor assumed was affiliated with her boss (apparently Hellsing has a rep here). As they made their departure, Utah realized someone in the lobby was following them, and as Exodus split up from the group to get in her own vehicle, she ended up getting followed all the way to Bellvue, where they would rendezvous with their hacker. And for those keyed into gang activities, they recognized these were likely the Cutters they were dealing with.

Chipset had gathered a few important things. One of them was a general direction of Rina's captors through security checkpoint footage. It was a morphing license plated americar they were using to get her from Downtown to Auburn, though the footage gets lost there. Another thing, beyond her squeaky clean record, was that they had drugged her in her own home and used a mage to keep things quiet and undisturbed. Utah got one of his contacts, Brogan, to fish up some data over Cutter holdings in the area, and after corroborating with footage from the Sensor Tag they had managed to narrow down the exact building in Auburn that Rina was probably being held up in.

As Exodus went off to gather some extra equipment and chipset lingered just behind the others, Morgan and Utah again noticed a tail on them. A familiar face of a blond human male who they had seen at Rina's apartment complex, keeping an eye on them. The two figured they couldn't well lose them, and decided instead to lure them out to hear what's up. They drove off into an alleyway on Utah's bike and waited. A few seconds gave Morgan barely enough time to give Utah a bit more speed and agility with her magic before their tails came in. That blond man (Montrue) along with his guard (Rigid) walked up to them, with a shooter (Snake Eyes) hiding on the roof and an unseen assailant (Blitz) behind them on the roof opposite the shooter. Believing they had the leverage, the group of Cutters offered the group a deal: 15k a head to mislead Hellsing and drop things. Utah and Exodus were against this on pure principles of morals and professionalism, but while the infiltrator wanted to deceive them, Utah was not convinced he could pull that off.

So he one-shot Rigid with Morgan distracting them.

There was a very brief firefight right when that shot went off. Blitz failed to cut Utah in half so Morgan took away his mental agency and turned him against Montrue, Snake Eyes managed to nearly down the dryad before Utah put one in his shoulders and he chose not to fight any longer, and once having realized his plan wasn't going to turn out well Montrue gave a parting shot and bolted for the car, with the team in pursuit. They weren't able to stop him or follow him, but Chipset managed to brick his commlink and he was unable to contact the Cutters holding Rina to give them forewarning while he was on the run for his life. The team had a very short window to rush in and get the girl. Making a risky call on where she'd be and getting it right, they scaled the building with Chipset's help and Morgan hiding them with a final spirit. Her spells got bounced on the ward but the concealment remained in tact as they broke in through the rooftop access and made it to the third floor. Chipset pre-emptively opened up the way to Rina and guided them to her, but the cameras caught Utah. They barely had a chance to grab the girl and get to the stairs again before guards flanked them and gave chase. Utah got hit really hard and nearly died on the spot due to his lacking armor, but with Exodus holding the line he managed to hop down with Morgan's levitation and flee over to Chipset. The getaway vehicle had some difficulties losing the pursuing cutters, but with some ddos'ing to ruin their day Chipset was able to get away. Exodus meanwhile was on the roof and had to take a risky gamble. She jumped off to land on the ground below, hurting herself but managing to sneak back in through the crowds. Thanks to help from the spirits concealment and her own talent at hiding amongst crowds and groups, she made a hasty retreat out of there. They got the girl.

Aftermath

Hellsing was ready and waiting to get Rina back, and fussed over her employee like crazy. With Utah's diligent surveillance of the situation, Hellsing ALSO gave them that little bonus as thanks for tipping her off on who to kill later.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.