A Walk In The Park
| A Walk In The Park | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Humanis | ||||||||
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Tora Kokoro Rooster Zenith R-33 | Humanis protesters | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 0 | Dave (non-lethal) | ||||||||
Summary
Unable to use a calendar properly yet, Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy (Jawline of Justice), asks a team of runners to act as bodyguards for a group that will be touring the Fort Lewis Zoological Gardens. After a day of bonding, frustration, and tourism, the group realizes they've been hanging with Humanis the entire time, and has to bash their "friends" to protect a bus load of kids.
Background
Kenny was walking into a Stuffer Shack when a ganger ran into him. Kenny--being Kenny--tripped the guy. As it turns out, the ganger was running from the City Watch and Kenny becomes noticed. A company starts printing Kenny-related unlicensed City Watch t-shirts. This is not important to any plot line, but it's important in our hearts.
The Meet
Since Tora did not have a ride, she calls Kenny for a ride. After repeated brushes with death, she arrives at the cafe where they order breakfast. The rest of the team arrives, and most also order pancakes.
Flamesaw lets the team know that he is now a runner, but accidentally scheduled two runs on the same day. He needs the team to take the low paying one. Wait, the super important one. The team agrees, especially after he offers to throw in special first printing "Flamesaw of Justice" shirts. Kenny decided that they needed to be reprinted anyway, because his sword uses just fire, not ice. He asks the team to protect those folks showing up on the green bus, because the ones on the blue bus are going to harass them.
The Plan
The team, given absolutely no time to prepare, speeds down to the Zoological Gardens to meet the green bus. R-33 would pretend to be Kenny, just in case they thought he was the contact person. They'd leave MOST of their weaponry in the car, taking only what the team thought they could smuggle in.
The Run
R-33, posing as Kenny, greeted the group of tourists as they got off the bus. Eight folks got off the bus. Dave, with sunscreen on his nose despite the cold weather, was the obvious leader. Steve was obsessed with the Basilisks. Amy had some serious Velma vibes and got along really well with Tora. Eddie and Jeff were always hungry. Lindsay just wanted everyone to enjoy their day. Marie was tiny and solemn, and got along well with Rooster. Chad had--well--no real personality.
Rooster and Tora were getting along well with some of the visitors. R-33 was enjoying his new role as a leader. Zenith hated everything about the trip, as it reminded him of chaperoning kids, without the added benefit of actually liking anyone you're chaperoning.
The team, informed by Rooster who knew quite a bit about critters, decided to visit the new Gargoyle exhibit first. When they arrived, the exhibit had a long line, so the group split into two. One team waited for Gargoyles, and the other visited Cerberuses.
As the team split and protected the targets, R-33 hacked into the zoo's surveillance to watch for the blue bus. Underneath the public host, he found a datahost that looked remarkably like a military host. (He'd later find out from Zenith that the Zoological Gardens was previously a military facility.)
The crew visited another exhibit or two before breaking for lunch.
Despite the cold, the visitors all grabbed milkshakes and food from the food court. While eating, Dave receives a message, and runs off, much to the bewilderment of the runners. The other guests follow, and the runners pursue. As they're taking off, R-33 sees a blue bus pulling in over the datahost's cameras. He realizes, based on the signage, that it's a school bus.
As a bunch of metahuman kids get off the bus, Dave chucks his milkshake at them and yells slurs. Zenith, deciding that Kenny surely had his busses backwards, knocks Dave out by shooting him from close range with stick and shock. The team stops the other Humanis members from assaulting the kids, and detains them with zip-ties for the police. Tora leaves a sign on one's chest.
Realizing they just open fired in the parking lot of the zoo, they rush to their vehicles and depart. An officer manages to spot and try to follow Rooster, but thanks to his quick driving and agile cycle, he breaks away before changing his plates and spoof chips. R-33 wipes the team's presence from the facility's camera streams.
Aftermath
- Kenny was sent drawings from the kids, who were thankful that the team kept them safe. He sent those drawings to the runners.
- Dave, having thrown one milkshake and receiving one concussion or worse in response, was questioned in the hospital and given a warning about throwing things at children.
- The other members were not arrested.
- Tora realizes she was sort of into a Humanis member.
Rewards
- Good Shirt ( Saw of JUSTICE )
- 7 Karma
- 2k Nuyen
- 2 CDP
- Optional: Kenny @ loyalty 2.
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Rooster
Alright. So. Here's the deal. Flamesaw is cool, but he gave us bad information. He told us to protect the people in the green bus, but we were meant to protect the people in the blue bus.
Other than that the run went great! We went to the zoo. We hung out with a buncha people that were cool when they weren't being racist. We saw the new European gargoyle exhibit, which was cool because they're so different from the American variety. Not that I see too many American gargoyles anyway, but I have seen them around. Their profile is so different. I saw some devilrats and a giraffe on the way to the food court after the gargoyle exhibit too. The food was expensive but wasn't half bad either, and the milkshake was awesome. It's a shame that a bunch of them got wasted. I just wish that we didn't need to leave the zoo halfway through the day... I should go back sometime.
Zenith
Fort Lewis is always a bit rough to go to at the best of time for Shadowrunners. All the buildings have MAD scanners, there's a big frag off military base almost always in sight, and doing crime there means a bigger response than you would have in other places in Seattle. Luckily for us, we weren't doing crime there. We meet a bunch of tourists at the zoo there. They seemed... nice enough. Normal enough. When you've been in the shadows as long as I have, sometimes you don't peg normal as anything other than foolish. We go along and I'm gonna be honest, I mostly drink from my flask. I don't know what I'm expecting here, maybe for one of the critters to jump out and attack, or for these people to be important diplomats that someone is trying to kill.
Nope. Turns out they're just racist drekheads who want to hurl milkshakes at kids. I don't cotton to anyone fragging with kids, so I let the team know I'm going to do something stupid, cause we're in Fort Lewis, and I shoot the Dad-archtype in the face with a gel round. I don't like metaracists for a lot of reasons, but I'm trying to be better about not zeroing people just for annoying me. So we usher the racists over to the zoo's fence, tie them up with some plastic restraints and bug out before the Knights arrive. Apparently the kids appreciated someone standing up for them too.
The team on this one was good. Rooster's weird, but I think he and I share some similar thoughts on how one deals with a job. R-33 I haven't worked with in awhile but he seems solid, wiped our data from the cameras best as he could. Tora's a good kid. Though I worry she might be a little too idealistic for the shadows. I like her though, pretty good with that crossbow, and wanting to help people is a good instinct.
All said and done, I still hate chaperoning field trips.
Tora
It seemed like a nice enough gig. Watch some folks while they enjoyed a day at the zoo and keep them safe from another group that was looking to cause trouble. I just wish Kenny had been a bit more clear on his instructions.
Turns out he gave us some bad info. We had ended up helping the wrong group. Some fragging Humanis members to boot. We only found out when they started hurling slurs and drinks at a bus load of meta-kids that had arrived out front. I won't like I was suprised when Zenith blasted one of them in the face but since it was gel rounds I decided what the hell and whipped out my crossbow. It was easy rounding them up, given that they were just suburbans, and pouring their own drinks on their heads was a nice feeling. I grew up with a meta family and have seen what happens in the Barrens to folks. I figured we let them off easy. I'm just angry I got attached to one of them before the reveal. Makes my skin crawl. Need to be more careful going forward.