It Belongs in a Museum 3: Half-Lived

It Belongs in a Museum 3: Half-Lived
Part of The Cutter's Curator
Date 2081-08-08 GM KoreanBBQ Location Cutter Stronghold between Tacoma and Puyallup Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Cutters
Flyboy Moth Strawberry Trash Panda
Casualties and losses
Major structural damage to building. Some near death experiences.

Summary

Professor Simeon Jones hired the runners to recover a Fifth World artifact that had been stolen from him - a hard drive with all the iterations of the game Half-Life loaded. He assumed the Cutters had it in a secure location.

The runners identified the correct Cutter stronghold and scouted it. They realized there was a cache of Fifth World artifacts in the basement, and the game was in a top floor room. Though the plan had some hiccups, they eventually recovered all of the stolen items and returned them to the Johnson.

Background

The Professor used to have a Fifth World artifact museum in Tacoma. That museum was robbed by the Cutters and burned to the ground; see report. He re-established the museum in the Redmond Barrens, with help from Mint.

The Cutters still had many of his artifacts.

The Meet

The Professor invited the runners to his newly established museum in the Redmond Barrens. Though the building looked run down on the outside, it was quite impressive inside. It had that posh quiet feel of a museum. The runners could see some of the collection on their way in, including the remarkable still living tamagotchi. Strawberry and Trash Panda particularly enjoyed the displays about Fifth World entertainment.

He explained that they needed to recover the hard drive with Half-Life from the Cutters. After a brief negotiation with Moth, supported by Flyboy, he agreed to pay them 15,000 nuyen each.

The Plan

Between Strawberry, Trash Panda, and Moth's knowledge of gangs, the runners were aware of three Cutter strongholds - one in Cottage Lake, one between Tacoma and Puyallup, and one on the far eastern side of Redmond.

The runners moved to a hotel room to do some research and make an initial plan.

Working together, they searched the matrix for any mentions of Half-Life. They found some old message boards from pre-crash, suggesting that the community had been excitedly waiting for Half-Life 3, just prior to the crash. Eventually, they found a message from only two days prior on the P2P page of a ganger who was part of the Tacoma video gaming community mentioning playing the game. No picture or name. Only a handle. And one message in Sperethiel. Perhaps an elf?

Given that this ganger was part of the Tacoma gaming community, it seemed most likely that the game was at the stronghold between Tacoma and Puyallup. The team made their way there for physical scouting.

Flyboy sent in flyspys and was able to find the hard drive, and a larger cache of Fifth World artifacts - many still tagged by the Professor's museum - in the basement. There was also two helmets, a collection of swords, an old PC tower, a VR headset, a Metal Helmet (Unknown period), 6-7 Swords from different Fifth World periods, a box of old Flatvids/Games/CDs, an old Gas Mask, and a luger pistol.

Flyboy also observed a young ork woman come in and take the hard drive with Half-Life up to her room on the top floor of the building, where she was playing it, using an old PC.

There was a window into her room, and a very narrow window at the top of the basement. There were four well armed guards out front, and about fifteen gangers inside the building.

The runners decided to split up. Flyboy would create a distraction at the front of the building with his drones and vehicle. Trash Panda would climb up to the top floor room, and get the copy of Half-Life. Strawberry and Moth would sneak into the basement (through an enlarged hole in the wall, courtesy of Strawberry's monowhip), and with a rope ladder to carry everything back up out of the window.

They had access to two vehicles. The initial plan was that Flyboy would continue driving his, and the others would carry the supplies to Moth's car, and sneak off before the ganger's noticed.

The Run

Trash Panda climbed up the side of the building, using gecko gloves, perfectly stealthy. She had an air spirit with her, if needed.

Strawberry and Moth got in place, stealthily, at the basement window. Strawberry carved a wider hole around the window through the brick with her monowhip. They set up the rope ladder and began to climb down.

Flyboy rammed into the front of the building. The gangers began running towards the front of the building.

Trash Panda saw that the ork woman went with the others towards the front of the building, leaving her room empty. Panda cast stealth on the window and smashed it - silently - with her fist, and got into the room. She used magic to increase her logic so she could see clearly how to disconnect all the hardware and transport it safely out of the room. She also took other artifacts from the room, including some posters. She began to climb down the side of the building.

Strawberry and Moth began carrying all the goods up out of the basement window. Taking two trips to get it all.

Flyboy realized that he couldn't turn the car at the speed he was going, and crashed straight through the building. Unfortunately, Strawberry and Moth were standing there, having just climbed up out of the basement (which window faced the back of the building). Strawberry was able to dodge, diving back through the window into the basement. She realized that Moth wasn't moving fast enough to get out of the way, and would be struck and certainly killed. She snapped the monowhip up and grappled Moth with it, and yanked her down into the basement just in time as the Roadmaster thundered by.

Flyboy almost lost control of the car with the stunt of trying to slow down - thinking he was going to hit his teammate. He just managed to maintain control, with some composure support from Moth, avoiding an awful crash, and bringing the vehicle to a stop not far from the basement window.

Strawberry signaled to Trash Panda what had happened and to come join them in the Roadmaster, while Moth hastily finished loading the artifacts.

Flyboy kept some of the bricks that had fallen from his damage to the building.

They managed to escape, while the confused gangers were still trying to turn around and run for the back of the building.

Aftermath

They returned to the Professor and gave him all of the Fifth World artifacts - considerably more than he had hoped they could recover.

Moth and Flyboy contemplated their near death experiences.

Moth gave Strawberry a lot of cupcakes and her eternal gratitude for saving her life.

Rewards

15k Nuyen (12k+3k for negotiation)
6 Karma (3+3 for side objectives)
Professor Simeon Jones as a 3/1 contact

Game Quotes

"You are like a wall serial killer. Each brick is a trophy of a victim..." (Moth to Flyboy)

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Moth

Moth here! This was my 43rd run. This was quite an adventure! I think my heart is still pounding. Strawberry one hundred percent saved my life with her quick thinking and whip! Thank goodness she was there! Flyboy and Trash Panda are always a pleasure to work with, too. Full of good ideas and panache. Though maybe driving straight through the building wasn't the best idea ever ever ever. But what matters is we all survived, and now Professor Jones is really happy with us, because he has so much more good stuff for his museum!

Strawberry

That was fuckin' something! Getting to see all the cool shit at that old guy's museum was fuckin' lit, and the sneaking was top-notch. I bet we wouldn't have even needed that distraction! Still, got to feel like a bit of a hero, since I saved Moth's ass from Flyboy driving through the damn wall. I thought he'd died for a second, since we couldn't see him through that cocoon, but we made it out! Went pretty damn well, I reckon.