Herding a Bear
| Herding a Bear | |||||||||
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Knack Knock Panda Diestra Ryuuji |
Character1 Character2 | ||||||||
Summary
A Johnson calls in the wrong type of team to work for the man - sympathies drive the team to defend the target of their run.
Background
In the Redmond Barrens, factories take in cheap exploited labor and pump out pollution. Workers at MCT plant 4030, manufacturing plasteel, aluminum, and carbon composite parts for the company's industrial vehicles are being needled into action by a string of disappearances, worsening working conditions and even a pay cut to their previous meager wage. Rumours abound that a group called the Locals are aiming to help solve the problem.
The Meet
Across the street from a factory, a Johnson arrives at a local taco shop (¡Taqueria Azteca!) in a cheap suit. Ryuuji is able to observe him crossing the street from the MCT facility, and quickly puts together that this is Johnson. Knock is able to determine via a quick matrix search that this Johnson is one who works regularly for MCT, and not just for this single plant.
During the meet, Johnson is skeevy, sketchy, sly and slick. He doesn't tell the team all the details, and doesn't give much information. All the team is told is this: the Green Light Tavern is where the Locals meet. He wants a message sent to them. While he's not specific, he makes it clear that the message should be 'worthy of the news.' Pressing on what that means gets implications of property damage - fire, smash and grab, theft, doesn't matter. And while Taco Johnson here might be sleazy and have bits of salsa on his coat and pants, he's also offering the runners 16k - and let's them negotiate up to 20k without batting an eye.
The Plan
The team is unwilling to go along with such a suspicious Johnson without question - and their legwork is as much casing the place as it is figuring out if they really want to go after this group.
Knock finds on a Matrix Search that searching for the Locals unsurprisingly produces an awful lot of junk results - fliers for some all-elf band, neighborhood watch associations, parent teacher associations, so on. But she picks up on something - there's occasionally an appearance of an icon in the corner of a few of these various, unconnected image. One which reads, "I AM LOCAL 751." Some of these images are erased as she reads over them - this is being scrubbed from social media by somebody, but creative use of algorithm-fooling watermarks is allowing them to stay up for some time.
Diestra spooks a lot of people initially when talking about them with the Locals, but after reassuring them that she's not a corpo or a cop, they'll budge a little. Some of the community thinks they're idealistic fools, some think they're common thugs, and some think that they're a boon to the community. Opinions are mixed - but Diestra is able to extract a few key facts. First, that the Locals are in fact collecting money from the community, and it's not always volunteered. And second, the Locals are recruiting and wear a gang symbol - some kind of old wrench and gears? Third and last: The leadership is not necessarily a single person - the implication is that it's very decentralized. Still, a couple names come up multiple times. Tajin, Lucky, Ritz, Red Wedge.
The Run
With enough information to feel like they won't be shot, the team goes to the Green Light. Diestra and Ryuuji head on in, while the rest of the team set up outside to keep watch. They take up conversation with an ork at the bar, who they quickly identify as Tajin - he helpfully identified himself. When one asked to speak in private, he whistled - and the whole bar cleared out towards the rooms upstairs.
From his comm, Knock is able to determine that Tajin has been making deals with local ganger Red Wedge (no relation to any other Reds except in having a favorite color). These deals introduce drug trading into the MCT plant, but in exchange Red Wedge has gangers keeping an eye out for Shadowrunners. Shadowrunners like the ones hanging around outside.
And - soon enough, it becomes clear that they're fending off more than one team. Panda and Knack spot at the same time that a man tumbled to the dirt where he'd been lurking with a few other gangers by a car. A couple mroe strikes, and the team realized what was going on. Shots were fired on all fronts - Knock flattened their decker, Panda sprinted across the street to take down the enemy mage, Diestra and Knack and Ryuuji all took turns trying to knock down the adept before Diestra got a solid hit in, leaving a bleeding gouge in his stomach. As he became visible at the same time, every ganger started turning their guns his way - and opened fire. Without hesitation, Ryuuji stood in the way - tanking sprays of SMG bullets to keep the opfor runner from being killed. A man of honor indeed.
That threat resolved, every ganger on the street looks to the SURGEd Goat Panda - and feeling the weight of their eyes, the Panthera elf flees over a pair of fences to avoid being perforated.
Aftermath
After the shooting's over, Tajin comes clean with the runners - and scrapes together some cash to pay them. The defeated opfor runner team agrees to take the fall for the botched job in exchange for their lives - while there's likely not much gratitude, they've at least lived to fight another day.
Rewards
Run Rewards for "An Autoclave's Pressure and Heat" (Medium, 13 RVP)
10,000 Nuyen (5 RVP)
6 Karma (6 RVP)
6 CDP (2 RVP)
-1 MCT Rep
Optional Rewards:
Contact - Carly Reeves (4/1) (4 RVP) - Sticking around to give the reporter a bit of backstory could earn her commcode.
Contact - Tajin the Rabblerouser (2/2) (3 RVP) - A local 'labor rights activist' is pretty glad you didn't bust up his meeting place.
For Ryuuji Soaking Six Gangers to Save some Sap - Tough as Nails at Chargen Rates
For Knock - Speed Reader at Chargen Rates
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Knock
Knock Knock! Guess who! It's me~ I known you're there. I see you~ say hello! Hello world. Bop bop, chop chop! Edea knows you're there. Bang! Not dead? Bang! BANG!!!! oops, you died. Too bad.
Diestra : Helping those people as their champion felt good, can't really help myself on that...The corporation deserve a bit of beating sometimes.