Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Bear
| Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Bear | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Compound Interest | |||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||||
| ShadowHaven | White Vory | Red Vory | Red Ledger | ||||||||
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Insonia Oberon Red Ribbon Saint |
Character1 Character2 |
Character1 Character2 |
Repo Red Ledger Rigger Red Ledger Goons | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||||
| Oberon (He Got Better), Neznayka (Almost), Red Ribbon's Sense of Safety on the Matrix | Many Goons | Many Goons | Repo has a cool new scar from fighting Gator. | ||||||||
Summary
And never sleeping again |
Spray, Pray, and Co-Pay ended badly for Neznayka. With her delivery to the White Vory imminent, she signals her fixer and friend, Chloe Green. Hopefully, she can find good help in time...
Background
Once upon a time, a clinic in Redmond was beset by street gangers, who held the patients within hostage, demanding payment. Through subterfuge, fast talking, and some very quiet shooting, a team of runners liberated the hostages. Unfortunately, the gang in question would have continued to apply pressure on the clinic, and so one Neznayka offered herself - and the White Vory bounty on her head, set by her father - up in exchange.
Now, a scant few hours remain to rescue Neznayka before she takes an economy ocean cruise to Russia.
The Meet
One by one, the runners each get called by Chloe Green, and are informed that they're lucky enough to be someone that Neznayka trusts enough to help her. They are given a general idea of what dock the Vory they're looking for could be using, and a cabin at which to meet up with their co-workers.
Of course, no Johnson awaits the runners at their cozy cabin meetup. Saint and Oberon arrive first, followed by Red Ribbon and Insonia. Venomous glares are delivered to the latter two of the group by Saint, who certainly hasn't forgotten Ribbon's wrongdoings, and doesn't take kindly to Insonia's Ancients regalia.
Now all together, the runners put their heads together to try and pull something out of this mess.
The Plan
The plan began with scouting and research. Ribbon begins to send her drones forward to scout, while the rest of the group pools their knowledge and calls contacts to narrow down which Tacoma dock Neznayka was taken to. They narrow their search to three, then two locations - and when Ribbon's fly-spy spots out Red Ledger members, they know they're in the right place.
After some drone eavesdropping and scouting, the group determines that Neznayka has already been taken to the Vory ship in dock, and Repo is still on board. After overhearing his muffled voice through several walls, they determine he's located within a structure on the ship's deck. Unfortunately, some additional scouting of shipping containers is neglected, which will come back to bite them later...
From here, an infiltration plan is concocted - Oberon will shapeshift into a seagull and get closer to the ship, keeping an eye out for astral threats. Meanwhile, Insonia and Saint will swim to the side of the ship, bypassing Ledger's forces and many of the Vory's guards. They'll sneak to the place where Repo was heard - where it's thought that Neznayka was taken - take out their enemies, and escape with a hacked boat controlled by Ribbon.
The Run
Saint and Insonia do a proper good job of stealthily cutting through the waves, and successfully make it to the edge of the ship. Oberon also makes it unseen in his seagull form, perching himself atop the targeted room on the ship. Ribbon does a bit more prep work, positioning a drone off a hundred-fifty meters or so to the northeast of the ship, prepared to provide fire support if necessary.
Oberon informs Saint and Insonia that there are spirits patrolling the boat, allowing them to board without being detected. Then, a twist. One of the Vory guards on the ship makes an unusual noise, and then drops dead. The ship is under attack by someone not on the runners' radar. The team speeds up their timetable a little, and one combined ambush later against a spirit and a Vory guard their way to enter is clear.
Now, something else goes wrong. When they enter the room they've so painstakingly snuck up to, they find no Neznayka, and several Vory agents, including a notable SURGED snake-like individual, who the team recognizes from their legwork. Fighting immediately breaks out, bullets flying everywhere - the Vory rigger tries her best to shoot down the team with turrets, but finds it difficult to avoid Insonia's bullets while stuck in hotsim. Oberon's fangs prove to be excellent finishers. The Vory decker meets the same fate as well, but not before inflicting a new terror of ghost-like personas on Red Ribbon by near devouring her matrix presence whole. Meanwhile, Saint takes on the snake-man, who fights back with throwing knives, but doesn't fare terribly well. Meanwhile, Ribbon desperately performs another sweep with her fly-spy, and picks up a signature on her cyberware scanner and MAD scanner from within one of the ship's plastic shipping containers.
The fight is further interrupted by Vory reinforcements, in the form of a shield-and-mace wielding woman spotted earlier during scouting, and a bloodthirsty cyborg of some description. Not much is found out, admittedly, before Insonia turns around and summarily executes him with a hail of bullets.
The fight shakes out in the team's favor - mostly - and the mace-wielding woman offers a deal: she doesn't really give a shit about the person running the operation here, and so she'll give the group two minutes to get what they need and get out, if they leave her alone to resuscitate the wounded. The team agrees, given that the unfolding chaos is going to gather unwanted attention quickly.
With this deal made, the trio of on-site runners makes their way towards the suspicious storage container. Just before opening it, they hear a Russian voice pleading, and a shotgun blast from within. Saint opens the door to find Neznayka on the floor, her chest the recipient of that blast from a moment earlier, and a man holding the responsible shotgun still pointing it that way. He proposes a deal of his own: he gets out alive with the ship, and the team leaves with Nez.
A palpable, tense period of hesitation follows, with Saint making her position very clear over the comms: Tell me we can deal with this. Eventually, Red Ribbon gathers the courage to take this risk, and tells Saint to go for it; the street sam needs no further indication, and grievously wounds the man. Before killing him, though, Neznayka halts her. This is not her father, she says, but his bodyguard, and what will happen to him if he lives to fail is worse than simple death.
Neznayka exchanges emotional words with Saint before passing out, and the group now has to make their escape - unfortunately, the situation has become more complicated. Large vehicles are beginning to pull up to the dock, and Red Ledger has been engaged in a firefight while trying to leave. The team takes fire while beelining for Ribbon's hacked boat, and then several Vory on jetskis pursue them and open fire. Saint protects Neznayka, but Oberon takes a burst of gunfire that should certainly be lethal, soaking the floor of the boat with blood. John Vory strikes again! Somehow, though, Oberon gets back up a few seconds later, practically spitting out bullets. Curious!
Despite these setbacks, the team manages to make it to Ribbon's van, and all pile on board before shoving Neznayka directly into the built-in Valkyrie Module. Ribbon makes a call to a doctor she knows, and puts her fellow runner's fate in his hands. It's a good thing she doesn't have to focus on this entirely, because now the team is pursued by cars. With Oberon helping to keep control of the car, Ribbon is able to focus on evading bullets, and the van takes only moderate damage while Insonia and Ribbon are able to deal significant damage back to their assailants. The battle truly ends, however, when a contact Saint calls - one Gator detonates an absolutely massive explosive at the docks, drawing away their pursuers.
Aftermath
The team awaits with bated breath as Dr. Noison Gayle attempts to stabilize Neznayka... and thankfully, succeeds only two minutes away from when she would have perished. Oberon's safehouse makes for a good place to sit and collect their thoughts for a moment, after Neznayka is taken to a clinic for further treatment. A few suspicious questions are directed Oberon's way, but he manages to largely deflect them, and Saint begrudgingly tells Ribbon that she's no longer on her list.
Everyone lives through the day... somehow.
Rewards
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Red Ribbon
God, no, I don't want to think about that run. That was already threatening to go wrong one of eight ways, and I somehow managed to find the secret ninth way to frag it up. I don't know how Oberon survived being shot to pieces, but I'm glad that his death's not on my head, because it sure as hell would have been if he'd stayed down.
Next time, I'm going to get visual confirmation on our target. No more assumptions. No more stupid fights. Someday that's going to get all of us killed.
What? Yeah, we got Nez back alright. I should be happy about that? I am. Look at me! Just grinning from ear to ear.
...seriously, I am.
Saint
<Retrieving Patient Records> . . . . . . . . .
<Audio Log Found, Date: 02-23-85, Title: Intake and Triage>
<Playing Log, Captions Automatically Generated with SmartSpeak(TM) by DocWagon(TM) Medical Services>
[The sound of medical EKGs beeping, and the muffled roar of engines and gunfire behind it. Plastic and glass clatter against one another, as if the location itself is shaking and moving. A machine voice similar to that found in the smart First Aid kits common among consumer triage units reads out probable prognoses.]
"Nez..." [speaker, a dull-sounding woman, audibly sniffs] "... Please stay with me..."
[The sound of a muffled explosion.]
<File Corruption Detected, Halting Playback>