Streetlight Manifesto - The Three of Us (Part 2)
| Streetlight Manifesto - The Three of Us (Part 2) | ||||||||
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| Part of Aftermath - The Ex-Neonet Story | ||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||
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ShadowHaven Taco Temple Ex-NeoNET |
Shadowhaven Evo | Horizon | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
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Rabbit Yokai (Dusk) C-Unit_537_-_Hunter Nora Inu |
Recourse unknown face, rigger and ork mage | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| None | The pride of the face | |||||||
And the king said I believe that I’m a non-believer now I was a leader, but I had to leave them all No one will ever know the things I held inside So I let them go ... There we were, the three of us The priest, the tramp, and I
Background
Kelly Robbins is an ex-NeoNET blackops Johnson and was in charge of gathering evidence against EVO in the wake of CFD and the Boston disaster. While he's a drunken wreck, and the evidence he gathered illegally didn't hold up in the corporate court, EVO still wants to tie up lose ends and plug this potential leak.
Meet
After their individual journeys to San Francisco, the runners coalesce in a Taco Temple, ordering various quantities of food. C-Unit_537_-_Hunter earns some Taco Karma by sponsoring his loyalty points to get some street urchins hooked on sugar punch. At the time of the meet, an armed priest and a wounded, drunk tramp enter the place. Buying a bottle of sugar-free non-GMO water, the priest sets off fanfares and confetti, as Taco Temple announces that his wish will be granted. Sensing their paycheck, the runners move in, and learn of their charge: Kelly Robbins.
Run
Traveling through the sewers to stall detection by Robbins' pursuers, the team learn more about the ruined man's situation. Seemingly burned out and washed up, he only cares to drink, which the surprised priest, a former runner closely affiliated with NeoNET prevents for now, taking away his bottle. Nora Inu quickly persuades him that he won't know peace unless he changes his situation. An opportunity to do that presents itself in the form of the rivalry between EVO and Horizon. Providence, being closely affiliated with the latter, media-focused corporation can arrange for a meeting. Emerging from the sewers, the team spot a hidden observer, despite their ruthenium polymers. Knowing that their charge is being targeted for extraction or worse, Rabbit sneaks up on the dwarven sniper Recourse, and disables her together with Yokai before she can alert her team. Waking up their captive with a stim patch in a remote location, the guardians pose their terms to the extraction team: 'Your choice, a very slim chance of victory, being already one combatant down, or give up and everyone gets to keep their limbs and go home to Seattle safely." After some bickering, bantering and posturing, they back down. Yokai and Rabbit are household names on the Haven, after all. Over at Horizon, things go fairly smoothly. Izabel Sówka, their immediate contact patches them through to a blueprint corporate Johnson named Mr. Smith. Pleasantries are exchanged, gratitude and the wish for further dealings are professed, and some conveniences are granted, and Kelly Robbins is left in capable hands... For better or for worse.
Aftermath
Mr. Robbins has found a new family, the priest is content to return to a SINless life. Providence is so close to Horizon citizenship, she can almost taste it. The red team backs down from Yokai's offer of taking them all on his own, and everyone on the blue team happily counts the easy nuyen they made.
Rewards
30000 Nuyen, 2 karma, +1 Ex-NeoNET, +1 Taco Temple, +3 Horizon
AAR
Nora Inu
So again with the prophecies and the Taco Temple winnings... This is either real or some next level masterminding, and I don't know which of those would be cooler! I do know that I will never win the Taco Temple lottery, though, no matter how many XXL Taco Bowls I order. :S Also kind of a let down that the meat flavour is just flavour. Could have done without knowing that. Shit. Today was a good object lesson in: Make sure your ass is covered, and don't do any lone wolf shit against competent adversaries. Not even for casing/lookout shit. Recourse got out of this without a scratch for a number of reasons. We're all Havenites, most of the team was not mouthbreathing murderhobos, there was nothing to be gained by spilling any blood, and everyone involved agreed to those points. Could have gone differently in any of those points. And then what? The team with the lone wolf is down a person, lost initiative, and their morale is down the shitter. Not a good way to start an engagement. So, girls and boys, have someone watch your ass! Even if it don't look half as good in RPC.
Yokai: I see that EVO hired not only incompetent runners but cowards too. I challenged all of them alone and they ran away like a group of cockroaches. I cannot believe the Haven endorses such so called runners. Not that they didn't have enough opportunities to get a drop on us. Perhaps I should open a training facility of some sorts or write a book about things not to do on a run. Oh well, back to regular life on yakuza paper pushing. Yare yare daze.