Hard Drive

Hard Drive
Date 2082-07-28 GM CutierThanThou Location Downtown (And Beyond) Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Renraku
Scrappenny Cold Hands Markus "Brotchen" Reichtsman Scarecrow	1 Renraku Sniper 6 Armored Vans 1 Heavily Armored Jeep
Casualties and losses
None	6 Armored Vans, 1 Heavily Armored Jeep

Summary

The runners are contracted to transport sensitive data across the border into the CAS. Things quickly go off the rails.

Background

Tired of mistreatment at the hands of his employers at Renraku, and disillusioned by the company's recent string of humiliations at the hands of Seattle's runners, a particularly ticked-off salaryork makes a copy of several sensitive documents, including incriminating accounting reports and several dozen prototype designs, with the hopes of selling them off to whoever he thinks can do the most damage to Renraku's reputation with them.

The Meet

The runners meet with the Johnson, Allen (no last name given), in a parking lot in Downtown Seattle. There, he explains the situation up to now, as well as airing some of his grievances with Renraku. However, when he produces the datastick containing the stolen documents, it (along with most of the hand holding it) is destroyed by a Renraku sniper. The runners all take cover, making their way back to Scrappenny's car while protecting the J. Allen's commlink is hacked into by his HR manager, Suzie, who reprimands him for breaking his contract, and warns that further Renraku enforcers are on the way, as well as offering the runners a chance to turn him in to Renraku in exchange for leniency. Scarecrow responds by magically electrocuting the sniper several times from a mile away, until they pass out.

The Plan

Scarecrow, Markus, and Allen travel with Scrappenny in her car, while Cold Hands hangs back on her motorcycle and discusses the plan with them via DNI. After they take some time to tend to Allen's shot-off hand, he discusses the new change of plans; first, get him to a street doctor, then get him out of the UCAS and into Nevada - hopefully, neutral turf where Renraku can't go after him. Scrappenny calls up her fixer Mindy Lew, who directs the runners to Dr. Tony Hanks, a surgeon in the Redmond barrens. They plan a route out of Downtown, through Snohomish, and down through the wastes to get to him, and set off before the Renraku reinforcements can catch up.

The Run

The first obstacle on their journey is a SIN station, though Scrappenny successfully lies her way through almost immediately, claiming to be the only person in the car, and saving the runners valuable time. Cold Hands, with the help of a fresh burner SIN, follows close behind.

Travelling through Snohomish, a Renraku corporate van finally catches up to the runners, though is quickly dispatched by the team. Two more take its place, and while they manage to do some feedback damage to Scrappenny, they too are dealt with in short order, through a combination of bullets, magical lightning, and death-defying motorcycle-and-katana stunts.

Passing into the Barrens, the runners come across a spike trap laid across the road - with runflat tires, Scrappenny crosses it without an issue. Again. Much to the dismay of the same gangers that tried it on her the last time. Cold Hands, on the other hand, gets over the spikes by doing a cool flip.

Finally, the runners arrive at the hospital, though are told they'll have to wait a while until Dr. Hanks is available to tend to Allen, since his injuries aren't as life-threatening as the other patients'. The party rest for a while, take turns keeping watch, and after a few hours, get into one last firefight with several more Renraku vans and a gunnery jeep. Things start out looking pretty rough, with runners sustaining some serious injuries, but the tables quickly turn, and the vehicles (and their occupants) are left violently destroyed.

The loud firefight happening just outside his hospital is enough to convince Dr. Tony to hurry things along so he can get the runners out of his hair. While he tries to sew some fresh human fingers onto Allen's ork hand (he was running low on stock), Cold Hands calls Asahiro Kunitoshi to organise transportation to Nevada for Allen, and the team chip in to pay for it.

Aftermath

Though the important paydata was lost, Allen managed to make it out of Seattle and into neutral territory. And, possibly more importantly, Renraku had several pieces of expensive equipment broken and were made to look like chumps. Again.

Rewards

• 10,000 nuyen (5 RVP)
• 7 karma (7 RVP)
• Runners that Work For The People by donating to his hospital can take Dr. Tony Hanks at C2/L1 (-2 RVP or equivalent CDP)
• +2 CDP

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Cold Hands

"I rarely pass up a chance to get paid for a road trip, even though this one was much shorter than anticipated. Lesson learned: the mission starts as soon as you accept it. I left my best gear at home and showed up to the meet with little more than biker regalia and a katana. This time it didn't cost me, but next time I might not be so fortunate. I'll leave impressing the client to the face; whenever I go to a meet from now on, I'll come prepped for a fight."

"Aside from a few close calls, I got through without a scratch. The Johnson wasn't so lucky, but he should count himself blessed that he managed to escape the wrath of a mega. I'm just glad Asahiro was willing to play ball when I told him we were poking Renraku in the eye. After committing and losing an entire armored convoy to make an example of a wayward employee, and then failing to accomplish that, I'm sure they've lost a lot of face."

"The other runners were good at what they did. Drug-induced crashes complicated our timeline, but I can't complain about the results."

Scrappenny

The moment I have taken up this job, I knew something weird was going on and know that dealing with it...first meeting out with someone who's very green and them losing their fingers due to a high powered round and having to fight corps out in the barrens