Cutting It Close

Cutting It Close
Date 2082-01-28 GM Sarcarian Location Redmond, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Cutters
Frostbite Magnum Rougarou Skimmer Zenith	Cutters Mooks Cutters Conjurer Cutters Decker Cutters Sniper Johnny Azure
Casualties and losses
	Cutters Mooks x5, Cutters Conjurer, Cutters Decker, Cutters Sniper, Johnny Azure

Summary

In which the team are tasked by Argent with recovering the jacket of a fallen Ancient from the Cutters.

The Meet

The runners are asked to meet at a Silver Linings, the bar Argent operates out of in Loveland which the Haven assisted with the takeover of in Pressing the Attack and There Goes the Neighborhood. Everyone is able to make it on time, though Rougarou ends up having to call a coworker and convincing her to cover her shift at her day job at Stuffer Shack. Inside, they find a bunch of Ancients drinking and having a good time, and are met with shots by Argent, who walks them through what he needs of them. He explains that a Cutters base was recently attacked (see: Digital Dark Age) and their forces decimated, providing a window of opportunity to strike - he wants them to infiltrate and recover a jacket belonging to a friend of his from when he was in the Ancients, for which he is willing to pay them 10k nuyen each. He also offers to double the payment if they bring him the jacket of the Cutters lieutenant in charge - a talented street same called Johnny Azure who has killed several Ancients in the ongoing war between the two gangs. The team agrees to these terms, but Magnum has a pang of conscience when his Gunyan mentor lets him know that taking the Ancients jacket back might be kosher, but taking the Cutters one defenitly isn't, as it would only continue the cycle of violence between the groups.

The Plan

Not a whole lot honestly - the team have the location of the Cutters base in Redmond and are a bunch of superpowered professional murderers ready to murder people professionally using their superpowers, so they kit up and head out to do some crime. Argent has the team give him a heads up as they're ready for go-time so that he can have the Ancients attack the Cutters and ensure that there won't be any backup arriving before they manage to get the jacket and get out of the gang's territory.

The Run

Approaching the walled campus lot (running wireless-off with micro-transceivers so as to not be hacked and noticed), Zenith confirms there is no one on the other side before giving Rougarou the go-ahead to wall-run up it with a rope so that the rest can follow - all except Frostbite (who's astral hazing creeps the other adepts out), who scales a nearby building with his climbing claws to find a good sniper's perch. Unfortunately after the last run the Cutters have posted someone in the building, so Frostbite has to sneak past the guard with his RPC to get into position. While he does so, the others sneak inside the base and make their way stealthily past the guards - since they're a bunch of physads with RPC and/or lots of edge, they're able to avoid notice as they make their way in diamond formation through the base looking for the jacket. While they don't find it, they do find a magical lodge which a telescoping mirror on a stick confirms contains a decker and a conjurer, so after Rougarou takes out a lone guard silently with her sword they set up a breaching maneuver and instigate a surprise attack.

What follows is a quick but brutal fight - Skimmer quickly deletes the conjurer, cutting off spirit backup, but taking down the decker proves a lot harder, since he's augged out as a combat hacker and manages to dodge or shrug off most of their shots. Johnny Azure joins the chaos with his custom look spec-modded Ares Alpha, lighting up the runners with called shots while his mooks back him up with complex full auto and suppressive fire. Meanwhile, Frostbite engages in a sniper duel with the Cutters sharpshooter using Zenith's fancy new Terracotta rifle, alerting the guard to his presence and ending up full of bullets. He manages to distract the sniper though, and last long enough to pull a hi-ex grenade on the guard to take them both to Valhala (thankfully he manages to roll just well enough on his post-edged soak roll to pass out without bleeding out before the rest of the team can get to him after the fight).

Inside the base, Rougarou (forcing multiple mooks to retreat with her Raiden before engaging in a sword-on-gun duel)and Zenith (dodging bullet after bullet while slowly chipping away at the enemy's condition modifier) put up valiant fights, but are knocked out by Johnny Azure and the sniper respectively. Skimmer puts down Johnny with his depleted uranium rounds before engaging in a firefight with the sniper while Magnum does his best to put down the surprisingly-resilient decker, finally taking him out with a headshot. Seeing that their leaders have fallen, the sniper calls for the rest of the mooks to retreat, however Magnum and Skimmer have no intention of letting them escape - Magnum tosses a bottle of ultraglide which Skimmer shoots and scatters everywhere, making the Cutters slip and fall in their attempts to flee, and they are put down with extreme prejudice.

Aftermath

While Skimmer calls up Zigzag to handle body disposal, Magnum revives Rougarou and Zenith (who go to look for the jacket) before going to handle Frostbite, saving the life of the ganger he took down with the grenade in the process as well (and ensuring that someone will spread the word about who killed Johnny Azure). Once the jacket is located, Magnum takes it back to Argent and washes his hands of the offer of extra payment while the rest of the team wait for sunset so that the ghoul organlegger will arrive to deal with the corpses. She arrives and explains to Skimmer that she has little use for bodies filled with depleted uranium shards, so he has her give those ones to Nameless and his flock below Glow City per their standing arrangement (who don't mind a bit of spice in their food).

Returning to Argent, the remaining team members present him with Johnny Azure's jacket, which he gives to his old crew along with the one belonging to their fallen comrade-in-arms. Giving the team their promised payment, he offers to remain in contact with them if they so wish, and to remember the aid they've given him in avenging his friend's death - thinking ahead, he also tells them to come to him for a better deal if the Cutters ever hire them to get Johnny's jacket back.

Rewards

• 20k nuyen
• 2 karma
• (For Magnum: 10k nuyen and 7 karma for turning down blood money)
• 2 CDP
• +3 Ancients rep
• -10 Cutters rep
• Optional Contact: Argent (C1/L3 Fixer) for 3 RVP or 6 CDP
• Optional Contact: Zigzag (C1/L1 Mobile Body Disposal) for 1 RVP or 2 CDP

Game Quotes

Skimmer: [referring to Frostbite's astral hazing] "Yeah, that guy gives me the chills."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Skimmer

"So kill a bunch of goons and collect a couple jackets. Sure thing Argent, this can be done. It was nice working with a full team of Physical Adepts, I'm not going to lie. Everything up to the initial contact when smooth as glass; hell Rogorou took out that first guard lickety split. When we broke in on the Mage and the Decker, I'm not gonna lie I was really looking forward to see how well my Depleted Uranium rounds would work on the conjurer. Turns out they work really well, cause that guy just melted. After that, I spent forever trading shots with Johnny while the others tried to down the Decker, who was surprisingly resilient for a matrix guy. After Johnny went down I dropped the Decker, then me and Magnum finished off the rest as I suddenly realized the rest of the team was down. Teach us to go wireless off... Fun times. Anyway, we all got paid, Zigzag was somewhat amused, the ghouls got fed, and Argent got his jackets. Successful runs are becoming a habit..."

Zenith

Ahh. Gotta love the smell of wetwork in the morning. I don't pretend to be a good person, I geek people for money, it's what I'm good at. So when I get a job to do exactly that, I'm kind of excited. I get a call from my fixer to go to an Ancients bar down south, so I grab myself a soycaff to wake up properly and head on over. There's some familiar faces, Babylon I've worked with before, though she's just here to hang out with her gang, and the twin Elves we rescued from an Ares Blacksite are also there. Of the others on the job, I only recognize Frosty, but he's good people, weird and creepy, but if we're being paid to be on the same side then I'm happy to have him watching my back.

Turns out the Johnson, a fixer named Argent hired a bunch of professional murderers to murder professionally. Go figure. There's a gang war on and the Ancients want the Cutters dead. I expect next month I'll see a job about how the Cutters want the Ancients dead. A lot of this is old drek, but it pays well. We have to find an Ancients jacket that got taken by a fragger by the name of Johnny Azure. We get double if we geek him and take his jacket. Easy enough. I decide that sending a message might impress the J, so I ask for a can of Ancients Green spray paint for after we finish the job.

The start is smooth. Frosty gets set up in a nearby building with my AM-47 (Hate that someone other than me fired those smooth first shots, but I'll give this one up.) and acts as overwatch for us. Meanwhile the rest of us use stealth and magic to get into the building. Honestly some of it feels like running in the old days, wireless off, mostly silent. Hell I even used tactics I learned back in the day. We get in without a problem, and make it up to the third floor without so much as a bullet fired. Rougarou gets the first kill of a guard who made the mistake of not having 360 degree vision and we stack up on the door to a wizkid's lodge. Skimmer and I both go for the lock (I like Skimmer, omae's fast, efficient and professional. Plus he carries fragging WAR CRIME bullets.) We work together to open the door and thanks to Magnum's mirror on a stick (Old school, love it) to see an unconscious decker and a mage. We decide target priority, kick open the door and Skimmer literally melts the mage.

This is where things get less smooth. The fragging decker just won't die! I have never fired more bullets at a person lying on their back that haven't hit home. Luckily he's just firing since he can't use his tech. Rougarou covers us with suppressing fire and Frosty is apparently dealing with his own drek (apparently the crazy chummer blew himself up to take someone out. I owe him a drink.) Johnny finally shows up and chummer is strapped. We enter a prolonged firefight and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not fast enough and get clipped enough to pass out. Eventually I get woken up with a slap patch (Relief now for concussion later, a shadowrunner's best friend) and everyone but a couple stragglers are dead, which is soon resolved. I also might have lost my composure a little and emptied four rounds of EX-EX into a dead guy's head.

We grab Johnny's jacket and Rougarou finds the Ancients Jacket we need, which we hand off to Magnum who apparently has some "moral objections" to continuing the cycle of violence or something. Every chummer's got a right to their own life. Me on the other hand, I get Skimmer to help me drag Johnny's body against one of the shot-up walls, grab the spray paint and write out "Ancients Rule" as well as stain Johnny's face with the green. Even get a good photo, I hope that gets framed in the bar. We get back to Argent and hand over Johnny's jacket, pick up our credsticks and are invited to party. I think about it, but I catch sight of an Elf with the exact same colored hair as Scarlet. Frag that shook me. Decided just to go home and pass out.

Frostbite AAR: MS004

• Report_Operation: Planning conducted on short term - given layout from Johnson, on the fly assault.
• Report_Runners: Johnson read - indiscriminate.
  • Listing procedure:
    • Magnum: Query: Explanation required - Ability unknown - further information will be required. . . Will set temporary bonus bias until debt is repaid.
    • Rougarou: Statement: Nonconclusive, assumed to be efficient.
    • Skimmer: Statement: Nonconclusive, assumed to be efficient.
    • Zenith: Statement: Once again - - - friendly? Assumed to be efficient.
• Report_Opinion: Job was successful, major independent complications. Listing procedure.
  • Daytime operation - ability unsatisfactory. Sleep cycle disturb, calibration required.
  • Near assault from gang members in relation to Babylon - assistance was utilized - complication reduced.
  • Multiple sustained confrontation - da - - -
    • Restricted thoughts: Damage sustained - immediate, inability to move - - - devastating, further tactical advancements required
  • - - - maged sustained - non confirmed.
  • Allowed hostile entity to survive - non sensical, reaffirm complete elimination during next combat phase.