Smuggler's Strife

Smuggler's Strife
Date 2082-07-02 GM Niven Location Everett Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven [[SignificantNPC::Pelican]]	Scarab (smuggler)	Knight Errant
Crane Artemisia Hounddog Ace	Hired Mage Drones	Some guards
Casualties and losses
none	a bunch of drones	none

Summary

The team is hired to hijack a smuggler's blimp while it's in flight. None of them have a way to fly a plane. None of them know how to fly any form of aircraft. Somehow, it goes off without a hitch.

Background

The smugglers Pelican and Scarab have had a rivalry for years, and it’s escalated more and more since it started. The tipping point was when Scarab got outside forces involved, by tipping KE off to Pelican’s runway and contraband stash outside Everett. This has led to the impounding of Pelican’s primary aircraft, and is the thing he’s most mad about at the start of the run.

The Meet

To set the scene, it's important to note that Artemisia spent approximately none of the run sober, and Crane had just declared war on Renraku before the run. The team met at a chopshop, all arriving to chat before Mr. Johnson arrived. When he did, he recapped the situation and asked the team to steal Scarab's blimp as a form of payback, without killing Scarab. He noted that while he didn't have a way of getting them to the blimp since his plane was impounded by Knight Errant, that was something the runners could change.

The Plan

The team would scope out the airfield where the plane was being held, figure out how to steal it, have the plane's autosoft take the team and the plane to wherever Pelican planned to take the blimp after the team stole it. Then they would use their contacts to find a pilot to fly the plane on the actual approach to the blimp. They would also acquire wingsuits and parachutes. After ambushing the blimp midair, they would take out any opposition and bring the blimp to the drop-off location to be paid upon arrival.

The Run

While Artemisia slept to regain edge spent, Ace, Crane, and Hounddog all went to scout out the airfield. This took them to a wooded area outside Everett, where they observed a hanganr and airstrip with a Knight Errant squad car and police cordon outside. Ace sent a Spy-Fly in to investigate, clocking three officers sorting crates. Hounddog followed up by sending a water spirit in, barely checking the astral to see the watcher spirit in time to give the spirit a heads-up to avoid the watcher. Inside, the water spirit encountered another watcher and wasn't so lucky, getting spotted rapidly. The watcher flew back to base while Ace set his spy-fly to record, leaving it outside the hangar, and the trio left to make some calls. Hounddog called up Danny Hoffman to borrow some wingsuits from an associate of the contact's, and Crane contacted Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III to ask about finding a real pilot, both doing so successfully.

Then in the evening, the team used a burner comm and some flashbangs to make a ruckus on a hiking trail near the hangar to draw away KE and made their move, popping the plane boot off of the Cessna and using the autopilot to get it to their destination. A watcher spirit tailing the plane was de-sapienced by Artemisia, and another was deleted from this plane by Hounddog. The plane made it to their destination, a backwoods spot in the Snohomish district, where the team would capture a potential hostile who turned out to be a nosy neighbor, setting him loose at the J's request.

The Pilot arrived and did their pre-flight checks, and the runners geared up, summoning an air spirit and acquiring nonlethal ammo to fulfill the J's original request. The got a message from the Johnson requesting that when they hijack the blimp, they record it to see Scarab's reaction. Ace used his knowledge of smuggling routes to cross-reference the blimp's route with his knowledge of the area to find a perfect aerial ambush spot. And once the time came, at around 11:00PM, the plane took flight.

The approach to the blimp revealed 12 rotodrones and an air spirit serving as escorts, and due to the location of the ambush the runner's pilot was able to maneuver into position to drop the PCs onto the blimp's envelope. Using the wingsuits to land safely and the ladders to climb to the vehicle's observation deck, Artemisia and Ace made quick work of the drones while Hounddog and Crane went for the pilot's cabin and the allied air spirit punched out the hostile one with the power of judo. Facing down overwhelming firepower, Scarab surrendered, and while being recorded was turned into an actual scarab beetle before being turned back so he could pilot the vessel to the new destination.

Aftermath

With both the impounded plane and stolen blimp in Pelican's possession, he was more than willing to pay the pilot's wages in addition to the runners. Scarab was last seen wandering into the backwoods of Snohomish, wearing nothing but a pair ob boxers and a baseball cap.

Rewards

• 10,000 Nuyen
• 4 karma
• 1 street cred for doing something completely insane and pulling it off
• The choice of:

1. Pelican (the Johnson) as a contact with 2 loyalty owing the runners 1 chip

OR

1. A crate of drugs containing 5 doses of each of the following substances: Ex, Guts, Nightwatch, Push, Overdrive, Pixie Dust, Long Haul, Deepweed, Bliss, Red Mescaline, Sober Time, and Betameth.

Game Quotes

"Does this make us pirates?"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Ace

I guess it's time to add almost shooting a neighbor dead to the list of things I've done. Ambush a blimp mid-smuggler route and not hiring any of the pilots on the Haven. Luckily and Rick put this under Ace is really the best smuggler in Seattle and *attached is Ace, Arti, Hounddog and Crane catching everyone offguard, shredding the drones to nothing before Ace takes a spell straight to the face and 'KO'd the mage first'* Before that we had to rescue the J's plane from an impound. Nothing like a quick KE call with some flashbangs to sell the authenticity to make them leave their post, Crane and I cracked the boots and the plane flew itself out. Ace, delivering more than expected and not getting caught.

Artemisia

“Safe passage to Louisiana. No one even had to die. Not that I would care. Goddess, within a few short days I’ll find her. I have questions I would like answered. I have … no. That’s not important.”