Clearing the Sidewalks
| Clearing the Sidewalks | |||||||||
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| Part of Building a Better You | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Sarah Glenn | Halloweeners | ||||||||
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CAPTAIN FREEFALL Rewired Samsara Silverpaw |
Weiners Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Weiners x7 | |||||||||
Summary
In which the runners are hired to protect AnthroCUSTOMS from the Halloweeners.
Background
A few months ago, Sarah Glenn developed a grudge against the Halloweeners (see: New to the Neighborhood). BioGen also got the bright idea to hire the Halloweeners directly instead of expensive shadowrunners to pose as them, and have sent a crew to AnthroCUSTOMS to burn their operations to the ground. Unfortunately the Weiners decided to be cute about it and paint a jack-o-lantern on a rock that they threw through the window to announce their intent and presumably put a bit of fear into the targets first. Evander Glenn, the currently-retired owner of AnthroCUSTOMS, told his daughter of this - she has some pull with the neighbourhood watch, but the Weiners plan to hit two targets on opposite ends of the neighborhood, so she has decided to reach out to some hooders to help with the defence effort.
The Meet
The runners are told to meet at a bar in Tacoma, which they are all able to make it to on time without trouble. Upon arrival, the runners are patted down for weapons by a troll bouncer, who waves CAPTAIN FREEFALL (in his mild-mannered reporter disguise) right on through and glares menacingly at the ork-posing Samsara. Inside, Sarah meets with the crew, offering drinks and explaining the situation with the Halloweeners and what she needs from them. "Steve Streamer" acts as the team's face, asking pertinent questions and recording them on his notepad, while Rewired pretends not to be a former cop in a room full of criminals. Sarah tells the team that she doesn't have much money to pay them, but can give them some flamethrowers stolen from the Halloweeners and may be able to acquire them drones (from her father, though she doesn't share this). Everyone is agreeable to the prospect of helping out a local trog-run business and stomping some Weiners in the process, so they accept the job.
The Plan
Since they have a little over 24 hours before the attack is supposed to take place, the team has some time to plan. Rewired proposes returning to his home so that he can do some gizoogling and ask the matrix for answers, and everyone hops into their vehicles to head over. CAPTAIN FREEFALL uses his reporting skills and Nixdorf agent to assist with the matrix searching while Silverpaw and Samsara hit up Taco Temple for snacks, and within a few hours the team has a bunch of information on the AnthroCUSTOMS and the building that is to be attacked. As well, the team manages to freak out Rewired's poor neighbour, who sees Samsara sleeping in her car and presumes her to be a homeless sex worker before seeing her leave the house the next morning after a shower, followed up by Silverpaw the catgirl and "Steve Streamer" the minotaur, making for a sitcom-esque exchange between him and Rewired before the team head out to the site.
CAPTAIN FREEFALL puts on his reporter act again to get inside the building and interview Evander for KSAF, while the rest of the team chat with the anthrodrones operating the warehouse. Evander knows they are runners hired by her daughter and is grateful that they have arrived to help, so "Steve Streamer" leaves and changes into his superhero costume before calling up the team and offering assistance (Samsara, the poor dumb girl, is the only one to fall for this act). Evander gives Rewired access to a trio of anthrodrones to sit on the roof and act as extra eyes and ears, planning out where everyone should be when the Halloweeners arrive and coming up with an ambush plan - CF will be on the roof to do his thing, while Samsara and Silverpaw hide themselves and get ready to attack from ground level, and he will act as overwatch and support fire.
The Run
With the team in position, night soon falls and the Halloweeners arrive. Their approach is not subtle, accompanied as it is by bombastic music, and soon a pair of vans crash through the wall to disgorge colourful pyromanics. Springing to attention, the runners launch their ambush - Silverpaw runs in first to shoot out one of the van's windows, and Samsara follows it up with a flashbang grenade (which the passenger attempts and fails to toss back) before the two retreat behind cover. Rewired activates his skimmers and glides in as a troll kicks open the rear doors, firing off a trio of flashbangs into the van which force the occupants to run for their lives.
The gangers in the other van are having none of it, and proceed to throw flame at Samsara (which she ignores) and light up Rewired with complex full auto fire (which puts him on the ground). But wait, what's that in the sky - is it a bird? A plane? No! It's CAPTAIN FREEFALL, who leaps into action with his signature move, making quite the impact (literally and figuratively) as he lands with his mentor's mask blaring his theme music and bids the Halloweeners to reform themselves and give up their lives of crime. Amazingly, thanks to the power of edge and Speakers Way adept bulldrek, this actually works... for a good 20 seconds or so at least.
As the Weiners load back up into the van and CAPTAIN FREEFALL applies first aid to Rewired while Silverpaw looks on in disbelief, Samsara goes berzerk and starts cursing them out in Or'zet (keeping it PG-13 so as to not offend the minotaur with the cape), which does the job of snapping them out of the trance and beginning round 2 of the fight; she opens things up with a flying kick targeted at the team troll, which manages to chip one of his tusks, and the two engage in one-on-one combat as chaos erupts around them. Silverpaw proceeds to dodge every bullet thrown at her and hurl a string of borderline-incomprehensible insults back at her attackers (along with copious bullets of her own), while CAPTAIN FREEFALL declares that JUSTICE will be served before marching slowly forward; he is shot up for his trouble before falling unconscious. Rewired meanwhile avoids being lit on fire by a ganger with a flamethrower and chases her into an office which she sets partially ablaze, filling her full of bullets.
The troll and Samsara continue their fight as the former pulls out a hi-ex grenade and confidently clutches it, ready to blow them both to pieces; Samsara (having recently acquired Daredevil instincts and the knowledge that she can survive grenade blasts relatively unscathed) just grabs onto it with a grin, and the troll immediately falls in love with her on the spot before exploding his own hand and knocking himself out. Samsara edges her soak roll and manages to keep all her fingers, then proceeds to help Silverpaw put the rest of the gangers down for the count.
Aftermath
As the runners mop up, Samsara tells the team to leave the troll alive - he was a worthy opponent after all, and had courage; he wakes up as they leave and asks her to take him with her, so she takes him back to the Skraacha as their newest recruit. Rewired calls up a cleaning service to deal with the blood and smoke damage to the building - Evander is just grateful its still standing, and gives the runners his sincere thanks along with their choice of custom anthrodrone for their trouble. Sarah gives the team her thanks as well offering to stay in contact with them.
Rewards
- 10 Karma
- 2 CDP
- Evander Glenn or Sarah Glenn for free @ C2/L2 (-3 Karma for both).
- Optional Gear Reward: Shiawase Blaser w/ Custom Look for 1 RVP.
- Optional Gear Reward: Anthro-drone as payment out of karma (1 karma = 4k nuyen - MUST add bulk mod to arms).
- Optional Contact: Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy (Connection 1 Ganger)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Samsara
Another day, another good deed. This job can be really rewarding sometimes, and I definitely don't mind being paid in good karma. It felt good to help out a community that needed it, even though I don't think that Sarah woman liked me very much. Still, I'm used to that, maybe I can get her to come around - at the very least she has a cool store that I'm happy to give my business to. Her dad seemed like a nice guy too, even gave me a robot buddy as payment for the job, which was super cool of him! I'll have to come up with something cool to name it. The team was real solid; it was good to work with Silverpaw again, she was just as good a shot as last time, and that Rewired guy might have been a cop before but he was nice enough to let me use his shower and brave enough to get into the fighting even though he's some sort of hacker, so he seems cool. I'm not sure what happened to that minotaur reporter guy, but out of nowhere fraggin' CAPTAIN FREEFALL (!!!) showed up to help out, so I'm not complaining one bit there - I got a selfie with him and got him to sign one of his comics! Oh, and that troll who blew half his arm off with a grenade was really impressed and seems to have eyes for me, so I brought him back to the Skraacha so that he can join up with a real gang and I think we might be dating now? Didn't expect to get a boyfriend out of all this, but I'm not complaining there either!