Non-Hostile Commandeering

Non-Hostile Commandeering
Date 2083-11-19 GM Asmodeus Location Pacific Ocean Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Major Corp
Ryan Danes Katherine Tyler Calypso Scrappenny Cleaner Cleaner	Character1 Character2

Summary

After suffering a mutiny under her treacherous first-mate, Captain Hind hired a group of aspiring shadowrunners to bring her boat back, along with the crew, all alive and well. After an extensive period of legwork, the runners manage to discover, and put the pirates into a disadvantage enough to duel for the fate of the crew, after a pitched battle, the runners eventually stood tall, wrenching the ship from the hands of the crooked 'Captain' Thomas.

The Meet

The meet was in a boathouse in Tacoma, according to the fixers, the Johnson would be an individual known as The Golden Hind, an infamous pirate with multiple 200k nuyen bounties placed on her by the Canton Confederation and Wuxing due to aggressive piracy against their vessels and territories, officially UCAS has nothing to do with this individual, though, she has been known to dock in Tacoma rather regularly.

As the runners met in the boathouse, they were immediately drawn to the fact that the small wooden rowboat sitting in the building did not match the registry, which suggested a far larger and magnificent vessel. On the other end of the room was The Golden Hind, sitting at a desk and slamming rum, a particular brand which was at least 5k nuyen a bottle, offering the runners some, which was gladly accepted. As Hind sat up, she began to explain the situation. Her first mate, Thomas Doughty, had suggested the crew aught to go exclusive, selling out to ally themselves with a specific organization or government, a matter which the captain adamantly refused. Later on, as the captain slept, Thomas managed to organize a mutiny, ousting her and forcing her to flee for shore on her life-boat. Passing the runners the specs of her vessel, the runners were told they needed to incapacitate the crew, explicitly non-lethal, as she still wished to see her crew returned, failure to do so will result in only half rewards being given to the runners at the very best, at the worst, she'd refuse to pay them if her crew was slaughtered. Speaking further, she offered an additional reward, a tricked-out dodge charger from her old days as a road pirate, as well as a Shiawase Caddicarus tricked out to perform as a 24/7 medical treatment. Additionally, she also explained the runners could take a few spare boats she happened to have laying about should they need such things.

The Plan

Stepping aside with the others, Calypso called in to the weekender, managing to negotiate access to spy satellites their 'mutual employers' definitely didn't have access to. Running a large grid search, she managed to narrow the region the boat could be in to a small passage in the pacific ocean in international waters.

Reaching out to another contact, Scrappenny asked Bilge Rat for some help, using their smuggling knowledge to bring them over to the Hawaii for a better assault point. With the runner crew all crossing the ocean with their vehicles and equipment, everyone was suddenly stopped by an assault of ultrasonic waves, sounds that could be heard but at the same not, once again, magic that many of the party members could not understand, as a massive paracritter whale rose out of the water, staring down the cringing party members. Cleaner was able to stand up and recognize the creature, spotting a massive beast they could challenge, they nearly drew their weapon, but manged to keep their nerves steady and resist the urge as the other runners gave off a collective sigh of relief. The captain seemed rather familiar with this creature, a Meister Singer, after throwing some coins into the water, it explained that another boat in the area had been hunting its kind, and had mistaken the runners convoy for the hunter's ship, with a peaceful farewell, the group continued about on their way, soon meeting back up with the rest of their group already on the island.

Calypso met back up with the rest of the gang, quickly getting to work calling up one of their contacts, Wusan, the overlord of the seas. Asking him for help locating, and forcing the boat to stay within the area, in exchange for a pile of reagents, as well as a promise to remove the troublesome vessel from the area, he agreed to do so, as well as negotiate with the Meisters to ignore the runners as they got to work. After getting more assistance Calypso, quickly got to work, calling Ace Powers to negotiate once more for access to the satellite network once again, though, after he continued to request more and more lascivious favors in exchange for the use, she quickly turned to another, Sammy Spinrad, a 'radical' celebrity in the area who happened to have access to yet another satellite, through some pleasantries and a trust-building snort of cocaine, she was able to get full access to the satellite, along with the number of the radical cool-man.

Getting to work, the entirety of the matrix-capable runners got to work scanning the area over, eventually locating a nearly invisible shimmer somewhere among the many miles of ocean, it was their target! The runners mounted up in their vehicles, a sniper-team stepping into the stealth watercraft, with Calypso planning to approach and hack the boat herself, while the rest of the runners mounted a slow-moving fishing boat to draw in the massive vessel.

Approaching openly in the fishing boat, Calypso started scanning the area with the matrix, discovering both the boat's matrix signature, as well as the persona of one of the crew's deckers. Looking over the partially-invisible ship, the sniper team got to work scanning the area for any thermographic signatures, spotting a pair of crewmen crossing the deck through the veil of the ship's stealth shield, providing a somewhat clouded image of the potential hostiles.

As the fishing boat continued to draw closer, the cloaked ship slowly lowered its stealth field, revealing a crewmate with a rocket launcher keeping their weapon trained on them as they fired a warning shot with a separate weapon. Calypso got to work socially, explaining that they came on behalf of the true captain, hoping to assist in solving the conflict active currently. Additionally, a pair of vindicator miniguns on turret mounts swung around to aim for the runners as a tall, cybertorsoed man approached the small boat. While waiting for the man to approach, Calypso managed to put a few marks on the boat, notifying the runners there appeared to be a single rigger on the boat's primary network, additionally, working with M3chan1c, they managed to figure out that the massive miniguns mounted on the ship were actually drones mounted to the top deck.

Stepping out on the deck, Thomas Doughty finally made himself visible, starting to speak with Kate, immediately starting a verbal dick-measuring contest with them as she claimed to be settling a score, after having the vessel and its crew outmatched, throwing some deep insults towards the traitorous captain as they explained that he was no longer in control. On that note, the sniper team let off a volley of shots, blasting a rocket launcher, pistol, and another rifle out of the hands of the top-deck patrolling units in one fell swoop. As this happened, Calypso got to work turning the ship's turrets on the crew, unfortunately immediately drawing an series of brute-force strikes on their deck, frying their hardening module right away.

Now seeing their weapons immediately removed from their positions, and a sea absolutely loaded with illusory shimmers of perceived hostiles surrounding them, and one of their deckers forcefully jacked out of their deck by unknown magical forces, the crewmen decided that perhaps there was a reasonable point in speaking to the shadowrunners asking them to speak kindly.

The Run

Spotting the 'captain' finally starting to lose his cool, Kate stepped up rather confidently, directing this man's full attention. Detailing the other spirits and paracritters involved in the endeavor, and mentioning their true employer. At the mention of the captain, the disarmed crewmates began to complain, exclaiming that the captain supposedly had betrayed the crew, selling out to other groups, much as the runners had been told that Thomas had done. Starting to debate amongst one another, seeing a chance to shake the mutineer up, M3chan1c passed Scrappenny his Krime Cannon, which immediately fired off for effect, shelling the area near the ship and horrifying the crewmates watching the argument. With a combination of Kate's street reputation, Calypso's encouragement and argumentative assistance, and the intimidation from Scrappenny, the runners were able to keep the argument going off for a stand-off, the pair continuing to argue as the crew continued to debate amongst themselves. Kate then turned around, raising her sword and calling the new captain a coward, challenging him to stand up as a supposed 'leader' by accepting the challenge of a duel. With his nerves fried by the onslaught of potshots from the sniper team, he roared in rage, accepting the duel hastily as Kate climbed aboard.

Stepping over towards a chest, Thomas started to violently chug potions in preparation for the fight, earning a series of insults from Kate as she leaned on her sword, watching as the man started to arc with electricity, his movements ramping up as he reached peak arcane condition. Starting off the duel, the 'captain' sprinted forwards towards Kate, slashing at her with a pair of knives, electricity piercing through her body. Raising her weapon to strike, she unfortunately missed a return strike on her foe, following this, Scrappenny fired off a distracting shot off towards the 'captain' one which he dodged, but was distracted by it, giving an opening for M3chan1c, calypso, and Cleaner to start using their individual skills to empower their ally, encouraging her to push beyond her limits. Lunging forward with his knives, Thomas went for Kate's eyes, with hard flick of her blade, Kate managed to deflect both attacks, earning a few lucky slashes back against him, sending him staggering back, just in time for another shakeup shot from Scrappenny.Turning about, the captain raised back, spitting into his foe's wounds, exposing her to Strain 2 HMHVV, taking a moment to step back and gloat, he once again had to flinch to avoid another shot from Scrappenny, with the entire crew still none the wiser to the actions of the runners. Turning about to return the favor, Kate spat blood all across him, infecting him with Strain 3, sending him into maniacal laughter as he finally saw a worthy foe standing before him. Pouring in his matrix ability, M3chan1c did what he could to boost Kate's defenses, fate being left to dictate the results as Thomas went for his next attacks, going for a crippling blow on Kate's sword, the sam barely deflecting the blow to the side. Hurling a knife straight up into the air, he turned about, going for a disarm attempt on his foe with his free hand, an attack which Kate went for a counterattack on, slashing across his chest and forcing him into defensive maneuvers. Spotting an opening to assist, M3chan1c nailed a mark on one of the screech rifle turrets, preparing it to turn and fire on Thomas as Kate continued to stand against him. Gripping the already impaled pirate, Kate screamed, calling on something deeper as she slammed him into the ground, plunging the blade the rest of the way through his armor, finally pinning him to the deck of the ship, the man collapsing as his body was finally overcome from the physical trauma to his body, Kate standing over him to give him a rapid infuser to keep him stabilized for delivery.

Kate spoke up to the crewmen who had gathered around, panting as she explained that it was time to return to the true captain, that she was far more than just a simple sellout, but a soldier of fortune and glory, and that by way of a captain's duel it was time for them to return to their true leader. Absolutely terrified at the display, and fully understanding of the surprisingly reasonable request, they finally sat back, admitting defeat and turning to port.

Aftermath

Returning back to the captain, the runners caught sight of exactly the treatment of the treacherous crewmate, a waterboarding by liquor, with at least three bottles of high-proof whiskey, before taping his mouth shut, horrifying a couple of the runners as they politely stole a couple bottles before stepping out to partake in their rewards, with Kate turning about to try and convince her to spare the man's life by hooking Captain Hind up with a proper ally in her new lifestyle, Bautista, regional boss of the Huk, in exchange for the protection of his own ships, and attacking of Japanese vessels in particular. The captain did not immediately agree to this, seeming to value a fully free lifestyle over gathering what she could see as less profit due to the lower levels of targets available. Though, after some heavy convincing from Cleaner and Calypso, she finally relented, suggesting that, perhaps there was a chance that such an arrangement would be beneficial for her. However, after a speech about disloyalty, the captain turned, drawing their pistol and stabbing the bayonet into the treasonous pirate to end him.

Turning away from the execution, Calypso told the runners to keep the money, disappointed at the slaughter as she disappeared into the street. The other runners were treated to a MULE drone lugging over a briefcase loaded with gold bouillon, a proper reward for ending the mutiny.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.