An Overnight Nocturnal Trip
| An Overnight Nocturnal Trip | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Ancients Ether | Cutters | ||||||||
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Oberon Panda |
Cutters Decker Cutters Goons | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| All present. | |||||||||
Summary
In which the runners act as disposable muscle for the Ancients and evict some Cutters squatters from their turf.
Background
As part of their ongoing fued with the Ancients (given new life recently by the killing of Insonia by Lichtenberg (see: Duerme y Pasa a Mejor Vida) and subsequent retaliation (see: Captain Cook's Magic Book), the Cutters have sent a small detachment of goons to take over an old stonemason's hall in Tillamook, a small town which serves as a stopover for several Ancients smuggling routes. Their presence is an inconvenience, one that would be costly in terms of time and manpower (which is needed elsewhere) to remove, so Ether (who is in charge of the smuggling routes) decides to send a pair of weird nocturna to handle things for them.
The Meet
The runners are contacted by their fixers and told to meet at the Rose of Sharon bar in Tarislar at 8pm - both are able to get to the meeting location without issue on their respective motorcycles, encountering each other in the parking lot and introducing themselves before heading inside. Ether flags them down and invites them to a booth, offering drinks before explaining what she needs from them (see above) - she tells them to remove the Cutters presence by any means necessary, and that she will have them smuggled across the boarder in the guise of Ancients in order to do so. She offers 6 grand each for the job, in addition to double that amount in bike mods; the two accept the offer and arrange to meet up at the Daisy Chain the following night with a group of smugglers in order to hop the boarder.
The Plan
After spending the rest of the night getting to know one-another (being that it's rather rare to meet other nocturnal elves) and taking pot-shots at beer cans (Oberon learns some things about shooting, while Panda learns some things about being an adept), the nocturna rest up and reconvene at the appointed time, donning their new green jackets and heading south with a crew of biker elves. The gang's robust smuggling network makes getting through the SSC and across the notoriously-well-guarded Tir boarder much simpler, with the group mostly following the remote back roads (though there is a brief scuffle with a trucker on the highway en-route that ends as quickly as it began). With the Ancients having connections with Tir boarder security and the nocturna somehow managing to blend in (mostly by covering up their distinctive features and staying quiet while the squad leader does the talking), getting into the counter is a simple enough matter. Parting ways from the bikers, the two head off towards Tillamook while the gangers proceed to the next leg of the smuggling route.
Left to their own devices, the nocturna decide to scout out their target before striking in the dead of night. Oberon uses physical mask spells to make them look like a pair of Normal Human Men, and the two proceed to take a nighttime stroll through the neighborhood where the building that's been taken over by the Cutters is located. Staying out of sight for the most part, they are able to thoroughly case the place and identify a number of guards on the building's balconies, noting their positions with thermal cameras. Finding that there aren't any on the roof, they plan to sneak up to the building in chameleon suits and scale it with gecko gloves, then Solid Snake their way through the place by first taking out the guard on the balcony and making their way silently through the building from there.
The Run
When the appointed hour arrives, Oberon and Panda engage stealth mode, donning their full body sneak suits to hide their fur and not leave any trace evidence behind. With their collective sneaking skills they're able to make the approach unseen and unheard by the sentries, climbing to the roof and utilizing motion sense to identify the number and location of the half-dozen gangers on the second floor. Planning to begin with the Cutter on the balcony having a 3am hit of betameth and work their way inside, Oberon casts his most subtle sound barrier spell around Panda to muffle the sound of the latter's Very Loud Gun - however the Cutters are unusually perceptive, detecting the casting with numenous perception. Hearing one of them tell another to contact their mage for spirit backup in order to identify the magical shenanigans at work, Oberon switches on his jammer to stop the signal and gives Panda the cue to strike.
Attacking from surprise, Oberon uses nerve strike to paralyze the ganger on the balcony while Panda slips inside and shoots the one with his commlink out, drawing attention from those in the next room. With stealth out the window, the two decide to play defensively - while Panda attracts attention with shots and obstructs a hallway leading to more of the Cutters on the second floor (wounding and striking down more of the combatants in the process while nimbly avoiding retaliatory strikes), Oberon sneaks through the commotion to get the drop on those heading up the stairs to reinforce them, managing to strike at a troll ganger's nerves and cause him to fall down the stairs on top of one of his fellows.
Seeing their numbers advantage starting to evaporate, one of the Cutters gets a bit desperate and uses a grenade to clear the room (as their comrades inside it are dead); this forces Panda to flee from it and seek shelter in the stairwell, which gives themselves a bit of breathing room. Oberon meanwhile run for his life from the explosion out to the balcony and uses his enhanced speed/agility to make the leap to the adjacent one - as the Cutters emerge into the now-blown-up room to look for what they believe to be a lone assailant, the banshee sneaks up behind them and pulls the pin on another of their grenades before fleeing. The gangers, lacking supernatural reaction speeds, are subsequently cooked when the second explosion chunky salsa's them.
With the majority of the opposition taken out, Panda cleans up the remainder on the bottom floor while Oberon hunts down the group's decker, finding them in one of the boarded-up rooms on the second floor. After dumpshocking the poor nerd, he decides to get a bit of revenge for the Ancients fallen Matrix specialist, telling Panda to go and bring their bikes around while he proceeds to essence drain the Cutter. After, he grabs the cyberdeck (bringing both it and the paydata back to their employers), double-taps the nerd and the paralyzed folks then spray paints a green A on the wall before making his escape.
Aftermath
With the explosions from the Cutters' grenades having attracted several calls to the local police, the nocturna decide against heading to either an Ancients safehouse or the local motels, given that's likely where law enforcement will look for the perpetrators first - instead, they speed away on their bikes and make their way into the wilderness. Oberon, having spent time in the area before coming to Seattle, is able to navigate safely through the pine barrens to the next town over, where they're able to secure lodgings and contact Ether. The Ancients arrange another smuggling run to bring them back to Seattle and deliver their promised payment for a job well done.
Rewards
6k Nuyen - 3 RVP
12k in bike mods at gear rates OR 6k nuyen - 3 RVP
Bonus: 4k nuyen for data salvaged off of a busted deck's data chips, 2 RVP.
4 Karma - 4 RVP
8 CDP - 3 RVP + Base.
Initiation ordeal for Panda after getting taught some of the basics of being a magic person by a fellow magic person.
+2 Ancients Rep
Optional: Ether, Ancients fixer at Loyalty 1/Connection 5 - 5 RVP
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Oberon
More work for the Ancients, more bike mods for the Mirage; guess making connections with them was a good call. Overall one of my smoother gigs, despite things going unexpectedly loud. Meeting another nocturna was cool too, even if they were a neko catboy - Panda seems like an alright guy, if a little naive about some things.It was a bit strange not being the most noteworthy one on the team for once, but I picked up a few new pistol tricks along with some useful intel about the gang's smuggling routes, plus got myself a snack and some pay-back for what happened to Insonia, so I can't complain.
Panda
Grenades are spooky. Felt my heart race when they chucked one. Felt my stomach be less than settled in the aftermath, but it was a good work. Shot straight, shot well. Met someone else like me too, Nocturna. Smart man, knew what he was talking about. Or at least, knew a lot more than me. That silencing trick he did, that was handy. Wish I used it better, but there's always the next time. Hope there's a next time, he was good to work with.