Worlds Collide

Worlds Collide
Date 2081-12-15 GM Asmodeus Location Renton Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Skraacha	Renton Crusade
Stygian Samsara Skimmer Sp4rks	Night Hunter Troll Killers Humanis Policlub True Blood
Casualties and losses
	True Blood Leader

Summary

In which the runners are called in as reinforcements to a Skraacha community under siege from a metaracist group

The Meet

At 5PM a Wednesday evening, a signal for help is sent out among fixer groups of the Seattle area by Ghaz, a Skraatcha lieutenant promising a substantial cash bounty for anyone competent helping him defend his community from metaracists assailants. The message is heeded by Samsara, Stygian, Skimmer and Sp4rks, who all make their way ASAP towards the pin pointed location by their respective fixers. On the way however, when Sp4rks and Stygian got friendly tips from heavily chromed human gangers to avoid the area, Samsara and Skimmer got straight up insulted and mocked by those very people. Ghaz welcomes the runners reinforcing his ranks in what is an old abandoned parking building, with pick up trucks lined up full ammo and various ordinance inside. A young trog comes by to serve the runners coffee before delivering Belts of ammo to other fighters.

The meet was quick and to the point, Ghaz is expecting an assault from groups of metaracists gathering around the building, and he wants to keep his people as safe as possible. To this end, he gives to the runners liberty to do what they can to this end. The meet coming to a close, the team started talking about various approaches to the situation, quickly evaluating the enemies ranks to 30 against around 10 ally fighters. Suddenly, an explosion happens right above their heads, at the second level of the parking building. They run upstairs to see through the newly created hole in the wall a woman with a loudspeaker, beaming confidence and sporting a cowboy attitude to boot. She addresses the building demanding they surrender, to which Ghaz did not loose time telling her to fuck off and that he won't risk the life of innocents to their hands. A spirited back and forth followed after which the cowboy woman challenged Ghaz to a stand off, tomorrow at about the same time she and Ghaz are to meet here, and whoever is still up after the other fall get to have it it's way. Seeing that as the best way to protect his people, and maybe not piss off Warboss, he accepts the deal.

The Plan

The situation being seemingly defused for a time, the team got to work to try and ensure a satisfactory outcome for Ghaz. Sp4rks tried to hack the woman's commlink, but failed at doing so. However, Skimmer got a recording of the scene that he passed to Sparks to try and find more information about the woman. Turns out she is named Carolina, and is known for being an enforcer in of the Humanis policlub, she has a reputation of efficiency and mercy, often leaving survivors in her wake after her operations. Skimmer used the time of the search to repair the destroyed wall with pieces of metal, while Stygian and Samsara mulled over plans to keep any assault from happening. A second search later, the team identified a probable Humanis operation location where they could find hopefully some blackmail material, or more info on their assailants at least. Looking at the place in the matrix however leads very little information, as all Sp4rks can see are commlinks, and no host to infiltrate from a distance.

The precious time obtained by the delaying of the confrontation is used to evacuate Ghaz's people, they took the underground sewer system to find a safer place to stay for a day or so.

The Run

The team finds old abandoned buildings in a generally seedy area of Redmond where the Humanis meeting place is supposed to be, the only thing giving it away is the presence of guards on the roof of a building and cameras. The main objective of this operation being to gather blackmail material, the team formulated a plan to connect to one of the cameras on the roof, but before that Samsara had a more pressing matter, a watcher spirit was looking over the parking lot. The spirit was very concentrated at a Manhole cover with blood traces leading out of it, which facilitated Samsara's work, easily getting rid of the spirit's annoying presence while not being spotted by cameras and rooftop guards alike. Sp4rks got to work getting to the cameras physically, passing through a nearby abandoned building to get to the roofs.

The doors to the building being locked, he opted for the quick solution of shooting the lock with silenced subsonic ammo, but nearby guards heard the noise. The guards got out and he quickly slipped in the building, being welcomed in a dark room forcing him to use his commlink's flash to see anything, while the guards seemed to not find the source of the noise that alerted them. Sp4rks saw while searching for stairs up to the roof three crates with a logo on it, he did not understand what this logo was but, by sending the image through DNI to the team, Samsara could identify the logo as being a mix of Humanis's and of the Night hunters. Sp4rks tried opening the crates with no success, so he decided to get back to his current objective : getting to the roofs.

Once on the roof, Sp4rks hacked the commlinks of the two guards, conning them into leaving their posts by passing himself as their boss ordering them to come down to help their colleagues. Samsara seized this opportunity to sneak on the roof where the cameras actually were and sneakily connected a data tap to the cables coming out of the camera, giving Sp4rks access to an hidden host where he will proceed to disarm data bombs protecting 5 files and link them to the team on DNI. Samsara however could hear in her position an argument going on right under her, between Carolina and a man. The man seemed to be peeved at Carolina for having called off the assault, while she insists that this is the best way forward, as their objective is not to remove the trogs but to rid the sewers of the presence of ghouls that are becoming problematic around the city. The argument continued for some time, gradually heating up until a gunshot made itself heard, Carolina warning the others as to what happens when her people loose sight of the objective.

On the 'trix, the files extracted by Sp4rks gave information about the interests of the groups composing what they decided to call the "Renton Crusade", the main organizer was the Humanis policlub, joined by the Night Hunters and the True Blood Group who were enthusiastic about ripping Trogs to shred, and finally the Troll Killers joined for the political aspect. Another file worried Samsara, it was a eerily precise and accurate map of the Trogs smuggling routes, and she asked Sp4rks to delete it from the host, but he was unable to do so after multiple attempts. Having gotten exactly what they came for, the team opted to try and take the crates with them in the car, but they could not lift them. Seeing that, they still tried and succeded at opening one of them, it was a pressurized crate with a big container plastered of bio-hazard warnings, clearly a dangerous substance. Stygian phoned up a contact of his to get more info about that substance, and she told him she will get back to him in about two hours. She however made a request of him not to escalate the situation, seemingly very worried about it. When they departed Sp4rks suggested blowing the crates up, but the team advised him not to do so, and so they got back to the parking lot before the event started.

Two new faces got in the parking as reinforcements, they were more chrome than Troll and had no mouth to communicate, so they did so through AR, Ghaz tell the team they are reinforcements sent by Warboss. The team got about twenty minutes to set up the scene, Skimmer helped Sp4rks plant and hide neurostun gaz grenades around the place where the stand off will take place, while Stygian climbed onto the roof of the parking to get an advantageous position on the ennemies and Samsara meditated, to center herself before a situation that can turn very ugly very quickly.

The time is up, and the Bad Guys(tm) make their entrance right on cue, making quite the intimidating display. To even the odds between Ghaz and Carolina, Samsara passed some kamikaze to the traditionally anti drug Ghaz, who accepted them for the sake of protecting his people. The situation is tense, and the stand-off is approaching, Sp4rks stay at the ready to act first and give help to Ghaz for his performance, but he is slower than Carolina, and she fire right at Ghaz, but his armor takes the brunt of the damage. Acting just a little too late, Sp4rks calibrates the team, with a rare zeal affording more time for them to act. Ghaz, in a Kami fuelled rage, seize his pistol loaded with a single EX-EX round, and fires it right at Carolina, who gets hit hard, the explosion causing her now unconscious body to be knocked back some meters before coming to a stop.

The night hunter that was perched high did not accept this defeat tho, and attacked the group straight away, but Skimmer put him down from his superior position, as if he was smitten by the gods themselves. Samsara started to trash talk the unconscious night hunter, but in the middle of doing so Ghaz, in his rage, executed the guy from a bullet to the head. About a minute passes and Carolina gets back up with the help of her entourage, and comes to the team and Ghaz, where she reveals that she was mostly here to get rid of the ghouls, but will leave them alone as she promised, to what Ghaz tells her that she should have just asked to begin with, and to fuck off for now as he is not in any state to discuss. Samsara also specified to Carolina that we knew about her Bio-hazard weapons, which surprised her somewhat, before she turned her heels and walked away.

Aftermath

Ghaz showed to the team a stash of custom made "Skraacha Troglodyte" commlinks, giving them as compensation for their help.

Rewards

- 4,000 Nuyen

- Jailbroken Fairlight Caliban "Skraacha Troglodyte" OR 4,000 Nuyen

- 10 Karma

- 2 CDP

- 2 Skraacha Faction Reputation

For Stygian only: 1 Chip for Amelie Dupont

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Samsara

You know, I'm really starting to think that squatting in Renton isn't worth the trouble, but damn if I'm going to give those drekheads an inch. I gotta respect Ghaz for putting so much on the line for his people, even speed-balling betakami when I could tell he doesn't like drugs just so that he could be fast and tough enough to win that gunfight; frag that was close though, when that woman drew first I thought it was over and we'd have to make a run for it just to get away from the mob. I'm more than a little concerned about that whole "Renton Crusade" thing though, not to mention those crates full of what were probably bio-weapons... feels like that's going to be a problem sometime down the line.

Honestly I'd have liked to have killed that Carolina woman and all those gang lieutenants right there while we had the chance just as a show of force so that they don't get any ideas about messing with the Skraacha or Ghaz's community, but that probably wouldn't have worked out too well for us in the long run. Besides, they want to deal with the ghoul horde too, which should probably take priority over us fighting eachother; at least she was willing to listen to reason, which was good for us. I still honestly can't believe that she was true to her word, but I guess even metaracist assholes need a code when they're that chromed up, lest they end up like those Night Hunter freaks - makes me glad I have religion.