Ghost of a Chance
| Ghost of a Chance | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven N-51 Starscreamers | 162s | ||||||||
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Ryan Danes Marionette Orchid Runner4 |
Character1 Character2 | ||||||||
Summary
During a humanitarian mission into Sophecles, the N-51s meet resistance from gangers, spirits, and the locals, and decide that hiring a group of diplomatically, astrally, and mechanically inclined runners would solve their problems. These are all done so in record time, and with no problems.
Background
The Meet
The meet was in Sophocles at the old field hospital, the area was rather flush with mercenaries from N-51, keeping the peace as well as keeping the local community-service serving gangers in check. La Borgornion, a medic involved with N-51 met the group outside in the cold rain. Looking closely, the group could see these mercs hadn't slept in quite a while, with some obvious signs of long-haul reliance. Stepping inside after their client, the group could see there was a surprisingly small number of patients, about 4 to be exact. As the group got down to business, Borgonion explained that the mercs had been dealing with several problems, ambushes on a number of their patrols with explosives, as well as repeated radio broadcast interruptions from some strange channels that seem to ebb and flow in their area. With the current state of the sleepless men at the FOB, N-51 decided it was time to hire runners to take care of the out-missions. Borgornion explained that a good first step would be getting in contact with a remnant of Pumpking Jack's old gang who are well-respected by the locals, though, there had been some issues in doing so, as most of the gang members appear to be mute, with certain designated individuals being marked as 'speakers' who can actually do so.
The Plan
After some discussion amongst themselves, and some negotiation for a higher per-day rate of pay, the group decided they would fiddle around with some burner commlinks in order to triangulate the source of the strange signals as they go about their other tasks, starting with investigating the ambush site. After a simple drive to the ambush location, the group exchanged credentials with the soldiers on location and were allowed in. There were 3 N-51 bodies at the location, seeming to have been torn apart from a well-placed grenade, the group (not including M3chan1c, who sent his drones out of dislike of the rain,) disembarked and started to investigate the area. According to the story, there was a 4th who survived the encounter, with a chance to fire back before being incapacitated. Looking over the bodies, it appeared that two of the soldiers immediately were torn to shreds by the grenade, with a third seeming to have only received grievous wounds, with the more obvious culprit for their demise being the mass of assault rifle rounds buried in their chest. With some investigation from Marionette, the group was lead to a nearby rooftop which could have been the lair of the ambush team, sending the drones up, a series shell casings and cigarettes proved these right, with some magical trickery, Marionette was able to dig out a recording of the event out of some of the discarded materials, which simply revealed that the group was filled with poorly-equipped guerillas which all had cybereyes installed, a the latter detail of which drew Marionette to the assumption that they must have been ghouls. After some discussion, the group counted out the Jack gangers for this attack, as they had also been shown speaking during the ambush.
Before the group left, M3chan1c got to work rigging up a basic trace on the radio signal, holing up in the Roadmaster, they grabbed their first point for their triangulation strategy. As this went down, Orchid decided to disembark and go about digging some information out of the locals in the area. Through some risque conversation, they were able to get a description of the ambush team's vehicle, a Hyundai Shin Yun, an excessively common vehicle in the area, likely something owned by a local, as well as some information that many of the locals are rather annoyed with the N-51 group, longing for the 'good old days' where Jack's gang used to run the place, keeping it secure and free, something the N-51 are struggling to do, much to the annoyance of the afflicted civilians. Thinking through the information given, the group determined that a local branch of the 162s might be involved, whether instigating the event, or being hired as a proxy by another group. With this, they returned to base to give their report in person.
Back at base, the group was told to stay back from engaging with the 162s, as the N-51s would prefer to claim the area through winning the local populace over, rather than start a gang war while the soldiers are already undermanned and sleep-deprived. While waiting on M3chan1c to run his radio trace, the group spoke with the survivor of the ambush, Hank, finding out much of the same information as they found on the scene, and gabbed some kick-ass French military rations before getting back on the road to talk to the Speaker of the Starscreamers gang.
The Run
The group seemed to draw quite a bit of attention from the local population as they drove into the neighborhood of the Speaker, giving M3chan1c another excuse to sit in his Car and send his drones out while the rest of the team went out to make contact. Meeting with a ghoul woman in the apartment listed in their report on the Speaker's last known location, the group started negotiations, digging up her previous connection with the Starscreamers, they managed to convince her to connect the runners with 'Bone Daddy' a leader amongst the remnants of the Starscreamers, and a community figure in Sophecles, in exchange for a decently-loaded credstick from Orchid.
After spending an hour waiting for their meeting, and narrowing down the source of the radio interference a bit further, the group pulled up to the mechanic's shop the StarScreamers were waiting for them in. As usual, M3chan1c refused to enter in person and decided to wait for things to fall apart, as Orchid rather openly predicted before leaving the safety of the armored vehicle. As Bone Daddy entered the room, Orchid got to work buttering them up, starting off by asking some softening questions about the state of the area, the gang's opinions on the N-51 occupation, and some of the local problems going on in the area, though, as their conversation droned on further, the crafty Face got to work, spinning words, twisting meanings, and greasing some cybernetic palms, convincing the ganger to open up negotiations for an alliance between the N-51s and the Starscreamers, as long as the mercenary company was willing to go on the offensive against the 162s gang. Before the group left, Bone Daddy passed off a present of good will, a datachip with extensive mapping of the sewer plans in the area. Following this, as well as a promise that the Starscreamers will watch over the civilians in order to free up the N-51s, the group asked shortly about the odd radio instances in the area, though, they didn't get much out of the gang leader, however, one of the things they said happened to give the magically-inclined members of the group a proper idea of what they were dealing with. After some investigating, it was determined that the interference was brought about as a result of a local airwave spirit, something of which Marionette was utterly giddy for.
After some astral searching, and some further triangulation, the group spotted the tower that the spirit was inhabiting, unfortunately drawing the attention of the entity, causing it to immediately blink into position right in front of Marionette, right as they reported its location. After M3chan1c arranged a bootleg audio link system through the vintage radio system they were assigned by the N-51s, the group began a dialogue with the spirit. After some back and forth, the group realized that this spirit's dislike of the mercenary group was due to the the increased conflict in the area, causing the background count to rise, much to the dismay of the spirit. With some negotiations, and a rather through explanation of the situation the N-51s are in, with their humanitarian mission, the spirit seemed to agree to somewhat lay off on the radio trickery in exchange for a lessening in brutality from the Mercenary group, as well as an offering from the party members. After appeasing the spirit, the group decided to turn back and report to base, with M3chan1c complaining loudly all the while about how annoying and confusing magic is.
Aftermath
Returning to base, the group turned in the datachip, then followed up with their report of both the interaction with the Starscreamers, as well as the meeting with the airwave spirit, and gave off a debrief about the situation, explaining the best way to push forward without any more issues. Explaining a few ways the group can improve their relations with the spirit, one being opening a public service radio station in which they broadcast their humanitarian efforts and help to improve the living situation of the locals of Sophecles, in common language so the spirit can understand the good impact that the humanitarian mission is making in the area.
Rewards
Run Reward for "Ghost of a Chance" : 12000 Nuyens (6 RVP) 10 Karma (10 RVP) 2 CDP Optional Reward : For everyone : Group Think (5 RVP) Le Bourguinion 3/4 (6 RVP) Can raise the Loyalty of le Bourguinion to 5 if you already have him at 4 Hank 1/2 (1 RVP) since well you met him... For Orchid : Trustworthy (15 RVP) (For those social big big roll) For Mechanic : Double the money reward in military surplus gear (weapon and vehicle modification) up to rating 19 (6 RVP) For Marionette : Can join the N-51 as a Private (6 RVP)
+5 N-51 Rep