Red vs. Green
| Red vs. Green | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
|
ShadowHaven Ancients | Crimson Crush | 162s | ||||||||
|
Berzerk Relay Santesso Skimmer |
Crimson Crush Chop Shop Mechanic Crimson Crush Ganger Crimson Crush Sorcerer | Zigzag | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| Crimson Crush Ganger x5, Crimson Crush Sorcerer | ||||||||||
Summary
In which the team save a member of the Ancients from being sold for parts to the 162s.
The Meet
Argent has the players meet with him at a nameless hole-in-the-wall under the highway on the way into Touristville. Meanwhile, Relay is a bit in-attentive and fails to notice the pair of Ancients following him from his apartment (where he has some of the gangers standing guard after an incident on a previous job) to the meet. Berzerk and Skimmer show up a bit early to get some drinks beforehand, while Santesso is a bit more paranoid and parks a block or so away to scout the place out via drone. His spying is rewarded with the sight of a well-dressed elf meeting with the aforementioned pair of Ancients behind the building, sharing a bump of nova with them before heading inside. He shares the feed with the others, and a shadow community roll confirms that the man is called Argent, and that he is a relatively low-level fixer from Puyallup looking to expand his reach into the rest of the sprawl; Relay puts his knowledge of the Ancients to use and determines from the flashy turquoise jewelry that the elf is likely a member of their sometimes-ally/sometimes-enemy, the Laesa Syndicate, and the team resolves to be on their best behavior.
Inside the bar, Relay gets drinks for everyone – “top shelf whiskey” in this case means to an old dusty 25 nuyen bottle of Johnny Walker Black. Nonetheless their prospective employer appreciates having a glass waiting for him, and after the initial pleasantries he gets down to the matter at hand – he wants the team to recover a friend of his from captivity before he meets a gruesome fate, for which he is willing to pay the team 8k nuyen each. Santesso takes the lead on facing duties, asking for a bit more info before they accept the job, particularly what they are up against. Argent tells them that his friend is with the Ancients, and that he was taken prisoner by the Crimson Crush – he has the last known location of his bike, as well as a divination which was performed by another associate which confirms that he’s still alive, but is to be sold to the 162s (who will pay highly for his soon-to-be-used wired reflexes system, and know how to remove it).
The team suck their teeth a bit at the mention of the ghoul gang, and Santesso does his best to act like a real face and push for more money – Argent beats him out on negotiations, but he smooths things over by offering to remain in contact with them in the event that he has future work. Everyone is agreeable to this arrangement, the team receive a photo of their target, and the deal is struck.
The Plan
The team hop into the rigger-mobiles and head north into Crimson Crush territory towards the last known location of the bike. On the way there, Relay sends out some flyspies to provide some ariel recon while Santesso hits the matrix with his new deck looking for social media postings which might provide possible leads. The two correlate the flyspy feeds of the neighborhood with a recent video that’s being shared a fair amount, titled “TROG WITH BAT STRIKES OUT WITH KEEB”, which depicts a troll with a large bat slamming it into the solar plexus of an elf on a bike that speeds by, sending them into a wall and knocking them out. Enhancing the video shows that the bike has Ancients emblems on it, and the elf would seem to be the target.
A bit more recon discovers what seems to be a small garage with Crimson Crush tags on it – the most likely location for a chop shop within a few blocks of the site where the attack took place. The muscle kits up to go ask a few questions to the gangers and find their target is; Skimmer goes into stealth mode and approaches sneakily, while Berzerk stretches his etiquette skills to the limit blending in with the locals by showing off his new Krime weaponry and manages not to make a complete ass of himself as he casually approaches the garage. Relay provides the ariel POV while Santesso spies out the place on the matrix and spots a knock-off Microdeck running inside providing a PAN to help deal with the local noise. He begins hacking marks onto it and coordinates with the rest of the team to squelch communications.
The Run
As Berzerk and Skimmer approach, Santesso starts squelching the gangers commlinks and Relay loads up his predictive analytics software to help keep anyone on their side from getting hurt. Skimmer throws the door open and shoots the still-in-VR “decker” (hacker would be a generous term – they’re a nerdy ganger with some stolen gear), while a pair of goons in the corner fail their surprise check. Berzerk tanks a shot from the mechanic working taking the Ancients bike appart, soaking the bullet easily, before getting shocked by the taser-wielding drone assistant. He drops the mechanic and the two of them finish off the slow-on-the-draw goons while Santesso begins hacking the drone.
Meanwhile, Relay spots a van approaching the garage that shows very little hesitation at the sound of gunfire which has a large dent on the front and some worrying bloodstains; he notes that it resembles an ambulance, however there is a lack of familiar DocWagon/CrashCart/ABC iconography on the side. A voice from the van shouts for the mechanics to stop playing around with their pistols and come help her out – that she needs the dent fixed before she “goes to pick up her patient”. Santesso commands the drone to go out in a bid to draw out the driver, and after causing a bit of further damage to the vehicle an angry ghoul emerges to shout at it.
The sight of a ghoul confirms that this is most likely the 162s ganger sent to pick up their target. A quick search of the garage confirms the elf is not there (though his jacket is), so Santesso distracts her a bit longer before Relay arrives, pretending to be a hired mechanic as he buffs out the dent, washes off the blood, and surreptitiously plants a stealth tag while making polite conversation. He evidently takes a fancy to her, because he asks for her commlink number (ostensibly for tracking purposes) – an etiquette roll flatters the ghoul enough to hand it over with a wink before she drives off.
After tying up the gangers and grabbing their target’s bike and jacket, the team head off to follow the “ambulance” further into Crimson Crush territory. Both drivers are stealthy enough to avoid being noticed by the many ganger spotters as they tail the van. Seeing it approach what seems to be the ganger hideout – a semi-fortified abandoned warehouse – they formulate a plan. Santesso spots out a pair of maglocks and forks a pair of marks on them, and notices that the matrix security here is less-than-steller – there is no shared PAN for the enemy commlinks, and he notices several pieces of wireless-on cyberware as well as a dog-brain rotodrone patrolling.
Having taken a bit of a shine to the ghoul, Relay advocates for not harming them, so after a bit of brainstorming they come up with a plan. Noting all the cyber inside, including several limbs and eyes, the team get the idea of coordinating with the ghoul for mutual benefit, placing an anonymous call to her via a metalink advising that everyone in the building is about to die, and that if she just waits a bit she’ll have a lot more meat. Selling their group con roll, they see the van pull off into an ally and wait for the bloodbath to begin.
Relay hops into his sniper drone and tears through the enemy drone like it’s made of tissue paper while the muscle sneak up to the warehouse. Santesso pops the maglocks as they approach, however most of the gangers inside roll better than the ones at the chopshop and are unsurprised at the ambush – they go wireless off, and one starts spraying supressing fire at Berzerk as he approaches (he hits the deck and crawls the rest of the way). Skimmer bursts in and gets eyes on their target (tied to a chair that’s bolted to the floor), putting down one of the gangers before getting targeted by a bunch of automatic rifle fire and a lightning bolt, which he dodges handily.
Seeing as the sorcerer has exposed himself as the prime target, Berzerk drops him to 1 box away from passing out and the caster starts crawling for the exit, beating a quick retreat; Santesso jumps into his own sniper drone and makes sure that the wiggler doesn’t get away, taking him out as he scrambles to his feet and attempts to run. Berzerk meanwhile is hit by a large sledgehammer by a troll who drags him outside and begins engaging in protracted melee combat. Inside, Skimmer continues to dodge automatic weapons fire while taking out his opponents, his adept powers giving him the edge over the drugged-up gangers, and after a few more seconds of fighting they’re all down for the count.
Berzerk knocks his troll opponent out (yes, he knocked a troll out with stun damage!) while Skimmer unties their target and drags him to the van – he’s pretty beat up, but still intact, and happy to see his jacket and bike as he’s put into the valkyrie module. Berzerk takes mercy on the troll, appreciating a good fight, and drags him to safety, leaving behind a note telling him that he’ll be looking for a rematch. The team drive off and give their new ghoul friend a call to tell her she’s free to head inside and pick over the scraps, ensuring that the Crimson Crush will most likely blame the 162s for the absolute massacre they left in their wake, but nobody is really bothered that much over the fate of a bunch of jerks who were going to sell someone to organleggers (they try not to think too much about how they just did basically the same thing).
Aftermath
Attempting not to consider what’s happening to the Crimson Crush bodies, the team call up Argent and tell him they’ve recovered his buddy safe and sound. He has them meet him back at the dive bar for the handoff, and after a brief congratulations for a job well-done he presents them with their promised payment as well as his contact information for those interested. Everyone also keeps the ghoul’s number, just in case they need of body disposal in the future.
Rewards
- 8,000 nuyen
- 4 karma
- 2 CDP
- +3 Ancients rep
- +1 162s rep
- Free Contact: Zigzag, C1/L1 “Mobile Body Disposal”
- Optional Contact: Argent, C1/L3 Fixer
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Skimmer:
- Not bad for a first run in the lovely city of Seattle. I wasn't expecting much from a group of gangers, but this crew was truly pathetic. I almost feel bad for those we left to Zigzag; almost. Now that is one contact that will prove itself quite useful in my business. Nothing more handy than a convenient body disposal service. Overall, it was a fast run, made faster by the addition of my teammates. Good work chummers, happy to run with you anytime.
- This was an opportunity to provide backup for a few new faces. A couple were pretty green, but they deferred to non-lethal where possible and the mission went off without any major issue. We managed to find ourselves in the unique situation where the 162s were left appreciating us, and I'm unsure how I feel about that. I mean, we didn't majorly misplay the hand we were dealt, but I'm confused about the outcome, you know? Everyone's got a right to eat...even Ghouls. It's a moral quagmire.