Flobots - Journey After (War Fatigues)(Part 2)
| Flobots - Journey After (War Fatigues)(Part 2) | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven the Ork Underground |
Horizon Knight Errant | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Fischer Paladin | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None | None | ||||||||
Background
A job is posted discreetly to the ShadowHaven host looking for immediate assistance in helping another runner team currently entangled in a KE HTR dragnet. Ignoring the voice of reason in their heads, Fischer and Paladin sign up.
Meet
Fischer and Paladin pull up to a grungy downtown bar around 7:30 for the meet. Making their way through narrow hallways, they reach a bare room where a female human stands waiting for them. Harried, she cuts quickly to chase: her team of three runners is holed up somewhere in a downtown block with HTR breathing down their necks. In the wee hours of the prior morning, the team hit a Horizon building with missiles and assault cannon rounds but must have botched the getaway. HTR cordoned off the entire surrounding area and the team found themselves trapped. KE has been marching block by block, tightening their noose around the hapless team. The Johnson tells them the search has been in progress for a good two hours, and she last heard from the team an hour ago: it was an S.O.S. message, then nothing more. With a 25k¥ payout offered and a 20% front, Fischer and Paladin accept the task.
Run
With KE closing in, time is short. The Johnson has given up detailed dossiers on the three trapped runners, but the team has no lead on where the team is holed up. Fischer and Paladin immediately jump in a car an begin to drive towards the search area. On the way, they take stock of KE's tactics: air power for enforcing the boundaries, checkpoints at streets into and out of the area, and door-to-door sweeps of every building. An A-zone of mixed commercial and residential blocks, there's a lot of ground to cover for the cops, but the sheer manpower deployed to the search immediately rules out any kind of firefight. Fischer and Paladin dig a bit on the runners themselves, looking for character traits or background that might lead them to where they are hiding. Based on what they can dig up, three potential scenarios emerge: (1) there's a runner-friendly business in the area: a pizzeria owned by an ex-runner might turn a blind eye to the fugitives; (2) there's an entrance to the ork underground in the zone, but while the troll on the team might get a favorable look, no love would be lost if the dwarf decker and the human mage were to fall into KE's grip; and (3) there's a couple floors in an apartment building claimed by a group of halloweener's, which the mage may have had ties with. Fischer and Paladin decide to talk their way past the KE checkpoint, investigate all three potential hideouts, and attempt to use the ork underground as an escape (not an easy deal for a human and an elf, but it's better than going toe-to-toe with KE HTR).
Fischer looks up and cold-calls a cybersecurity firm that's headquartered within the area and attempts to pitch a consulting deal, hoping to arrange a meeting with the business as a cover to get past the checkpoints. Things are a bit rocky, but the meeting is scheduled. The pair pull up to the checkpoint, Fischer posing as a consultant on business and Paladin working her fake bodyguard SIN. KE buys it, and the two are in. Choosing at random, they head for the Halloweener apartments. Fischer jumps into a FlySpy and slips in through a window, attempting to find traces of the runner team. To their surprise, they spot them almost immediately, but the team's Troll street sam mistakes the FlySpy as a KE scout and unloads with a shotgun. Luck is on the tiny drone's side as the blast sprays the wall and not its circuits, and a quick AR message alluding to the rescue mission convinces the mage to talk the troll down from obliterating the machine. With the missing runner team found, Fischer and Paladin now have to arrange an exit through the Ork underground.
Paladin puts on her gruffest face and trudges into the entrance. The sentries stop her, but she is able to convince the ork in charge to parley. The overseer is not pleased. The neighborhood is already catching heat from KE's dragnet, and this does the underground no favors. Add on top that an elf is attempting to move the very fugitives responsible through the area and it's immediately a hard sell. Luckily, the ork sees a way to make up the difference. Paladin coughs up 1000¥ to smooth things over, and she agrees to run a favor for the ork in exchange for the trapped team's safe passage out of the search zone. Paladin and Fischer return to the Halloweener's block, load the three fugitives into their car in an underground parking garage, and transport them to their exit. With no KE presence alerted, both runner teams are able to make a clean getaway.
Aftermath
The Johnson is pleased with the quick response and quiet execution of the job. Payment is made in full, and Fischer and Paladin earn kudos from ShadowHaven for their work (the lost team turned out to be one of our own). Unfortunately, the clean exit came with strings attached, and Paladin owes a certain ork a favor. Grateful for Paladin's negotiations in their escape, Fischer agrees to team up for the follow-on run, and the two head back to the underground to fulfill their debt.
Rewards
25k¥, 3 karma, +1 shadowhaven reputation