We Like To Party, We Like We Like To Party
| We Like To Party, We Like We Like To Party | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Hellraisers Joyride | Explosive Special Reapers | ||||||||
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Barracuda Sweetie Sinful Cricket Tombstone |
Assorted Reaper Mooks Reaper's Cyberadept Sniper Golem Benjamin Goon 2 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Cricket had to burn edge to not-dead-yet | Assorted Reaper Mooks | ||||||||
Summary
The Hellraisers are brought in by the infamous Joyride to steal back their famous party bus, the "Vengabus." In the ensuing chaos, Zombie Process is brought in, Barracuda finds not-so-true love, Tombstone Fred Flintstones a moving bus, Sweetie gets in debt with Spinrad, and Cricket gets turned into a corn-cob.
Background
In Loveland, the Vengabus is not an uncommon sight. Well, sight is the wrong word. There is certainly a visual aspect. The brightly colored, gaudy vehicle adorned in bumper stickers and filled with raucous party goers is a sight, to be sure. But the true heart of the sensation is the sound. The Vengaboys classic hit song "We Like To Party" at full volume, cutting through the night.
Unfortunately for the bus's owner, Joyride, it was taken from them. A smash and grab theft by none other than EX-Death, the leader of the Explosive Special Reapers and sworn enemies of the Hellraisers after Barracuda introduced their 'ware hookup to the earlist retirement of all ( Raising Hell )
Whatever happens next is sure to be quite the party indeed.
The Meet
The meet started as all good meets do. With an explosion.
The Hellraisers were jolted to attention by a landmine going off. As Barracuda glanced out of his window to determine the landmine explodee, he spotted a large, colorfully dressed troll that had been launched by the explosion and skidded several feet before coming to a stop. With a sigh, he tossed on his respirator and went outside to check it out.
The explodee turned out to be Joyride, a troll rigger and proud owner of the Vengabus. Well, former owner. That was the problem. They calmy and rationally explained their situation to the gathered group of 'Raisers and offered a grand total of 0 nuyen in exchange for them breaking into EX-Death's personal vehicle compound and stealing back the Vengabus. Somehow, the 'Raisers agreed to this.
The "Plan"
Locate Vengabus
Defeat Vengabus guardians
Take Vengabus
Move Vengabus to Iceberg Hotel
Profit
The Run (The Gang Almost Dies Opening a Big Door)
With a bit of matrix searching and legwork (along with bothering Joyride for more info), the runners discovered the existence of a Explosive Special Reapers garage in Loveland where EX-Death stored his personal rides. With any luck, the bus would be there. The runners suited up and headed off to Loveland.
The vehicle compound wasn't hard to spot. The numerous patrolling goons wearing ESR colors didn't help. With some more scouting, they found more goons set up in nearby buildings to form a sort of 'killbox' around the only entrance. EX-Death really wanted to keep that ride and was pulling out all the stops. Including hiring some beefier members of security. A sniper, well-hidden on the roof, and an intimidating decker that took the form of a Golem. The only entrance to the facility seemed to be an enormous steel door. Barracuda, sensing a need for more violence on this particular job, gave Zombie Process a call and somehow bullied and made fun of her until she showed up to help. Cricket decided to try a new trick and convinced Tombstone to run his ware wireless so she could stick a machine sprite in said ware. It was going great. With the visual re-con and recruiting out of the way, the Hellraisers decided to send in their best. Sweetie Sinful.
Through a bizarre and baffling series of lies and deceit, Sweetie Sinful managed to peel one of the mooks guarding the door away from the group and convince him to slot a Pacifier BTL. The poor bastard's drug reacted poorly to the new neurons firing and soon enough, he was having a very bad day. Through a swries of even more baffling lies and deceit (including a smackdown con roll), Sweetie Sinful convinced the gangers that she was a certified nurse who needed access to the Vengabus to provide the poor convulsing ganger medical care. The door opened and Sweetie was allowed entrance.
The vengabus was not hard to find, along with its two protectors. A thin mage and a wared up troll named Benjamin. Unafraid, Sweetie took the convulsing ganger aboard the Vengabus and convinced the mook acting as her escort that EX-Death's grand unveiling of the Vengabus had been re-scheduled. The man panicked and ran out, frantically dialing on his comm.
With the Vengabus's location confirmed, the A team set out. Zombie Process and Tombstone flanked Barracuda in a spearpoint as they approached the gate while, on the matrix, Cricket crept along. Barracuda began to stall for time as Cricket began to hack away at the door. Unfortunately, the watchful gaze of the Golem flickered onto her, leaving a runic mark on her exo-skeleton. Cricket tossed her matrix jacket to the side, rolled up her matrix sleeves and dug in for cybercombat as the two began to battle it out. The Golem was burned by mothra, shattering its hardening module but as Cricket tried to cut away at the Golem, its stony form proved resistant and her knives and switchblades shattered.
In the meat, Barracuda took a much more direct approach in facing than Sweetie Sinful. With a show of intimidation that left one of the guards smitten, he managed to stall for enough time for Cricket to squelch the man dialing EX-Death and open the door. As it began to slide upwards, Barracuda's arm tattoos roared to life as he hurled a bundle of flashbangs into the center of the room to kick off their fight.
Benjamin dived on the flashbangs, soaking the concussive blast like a champ as the mooks opened fire. Shotguns were blasting back and forth as in the matrix, Cricket was fighting for her life agaisnt the Golem decker, each one of the matrix users battering each other. It was then that the sniper on the roof blinked into existence on the matrix and overdrived her wires before launching a rocket guided missile towards Cricket's vulnerable meat body.
With one last burst of strength, Cricket puppeteered the rocket, sending it in u-turn directly into Benjamin as Barracuda sprinted away from the blast with the smitten ESR goon in his arms. Benjamin, sick of getting shot with APDS and rocket for a shitty wage, walked away. The moment of celebration was not to last. As Cricket turned back towards her immovable foe, a sinking feeling of dread filled her techno-brain. He was gone. She felt a shadow looming over her.
As the enormous clay fist squashed Cricket, she briefly thought of what she was fighting for. Bleeding for. Maybe dying for. A fucking Vengabus. Her brain turned to soup for a moment as her icon lay link-locked and flattened into a data-crater. The sweeping beam of the Golem's everpresent gaze once more focused onto her. With a thought, her persona twisted and shifted into a corncob.
On the streets, Sweetie managed to commandeer the Vengabus and begin driving it out as the fighty folks finished cleaning up the mooks. Tragedy struck again when the decker lashed out again, this time towards Tombstone's now un-protected cybereyes, bricking them and leaving him blind. As the bullets rained from the sniper's nest, the Hellraisers boarded the Vengabus as Barracuda commanded Cricket's car to follow at a safe distance.
Cricket, as her persona data was being categorized and the golem prepared to cart her unconcious matrix form off to a certain 3 letter corporation, felt one last surge of spite fill her. She wasn't gonna get her brain ripped out by MCT over a fucking party bus. She yanked the plug, ripping her mind out of the matrix with another spurt of blood and brain soupening.
As the Vengabus began to pull away from the compound, Darkness claimed the technomancer.
Speed (1994) but Really Shitty
Cricket wasn't the only one filled with spite that day. As the Vengabus climbed to it's top speed, the sniper made one final parting shot. An armor piercing round ripped through the vehicle and severed the break lines. They were moving 80 miles an hour and there was no stopping it.
The Vengabus was coming.
As the full speed bus pulled onto the highway, the Hellraisers (along with the ESR goon and Zombie Process) quickly began a mad attempt to stop the bus. The Explosive Special Reapers goon took the wheel as Barracuda grabbed a stripper pole that happened to be in the bus and stuck it out the window and into the ground to slow down the speeding vehicle before an inevitable crash turned them into party paste.
The Vengabus was coming.
The vehicle slowed a tad as the runners began to speed-dial every contact they could think of that might know anything about speed, buses and stopping things. Sweetie called up Kyra Samaras to deliver them heavily restricted alchemical tape to a moving vehicle while Barracuda dialed Brodie J to ask for tips on stopping a moving vehicle. His advice was to have Kenny punch the engine really hard. Barracuda, lacking options, clambered onto the hood of the car and tossed it open, preparing a punch for if things got desperate.
The alchemical preperations arrived via Radical drone and as Sweetie slapped them down on the brakes, they proved bizarrely in-effective, unable to pierce the object resistance and failing. With only about a 6 minute to the Iceberg minefield, it was time for desperate measures. The team whipped out miniwelders and cut a hole through the bottom of the bus. Tombstone clambered down into the breach and, as the Iceberg hotel loomed in the distance, slammed his feet into the road in an attempt "Fred Flintstone" the car.
In a feat of sheer, ghoulish resilience, Tombstone held fast and the bus slowed to a reasonable speed for highway driving (not for stopping). The Explosive Special Reaper goon made one final stunt, egged on by 'Cuda's words of praise and the Vengabus spun into the garage.
The 'Raisers emerged, most coughing and vomiting. Zombie Process stepped out as well and, with a faraway look in her eyes, pushed Barracuda over and walked away. When the vomiting stopped and the Vengabus's wheels all began to slide off comedically, Barracuda shouted to Joyride.
"We got your bus!"
Aftermath
After some recovering and Vengabus repairs, Barracuda managed to convince Joyride to take a permanent spot driving for the Hellraisers and donating a percent of party profits in exchange for protection, an anti-theft guarantee and a safe place to park the bus. The troll reluctantly agreed.
Rewards
24 RVP (1.5 run rewards)
10 Karma (10 RVP)
20 CDP (9 RVP)
Joyride at 1/5 (5 RVP)
For Sweetie: -2 chips with Kyra Samaras (Apparently this is a good thing??) 10% off her next IG
For Cricket: Records on File (MCT) after the decker sold off their full record of their persona and fight information to MCT.
Unique Avatar after vowing to never let anyone turn her into a corncob again (5 RVP)
For 'Cuda: +1 Loyalty with Brodie J
Optional Contacts:
Brodie J at 4/3 (6 RVP)
Zombie Process at 3/2 (4 RVP)
Benjamin at 1/2 (2 RVP)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Tombstone
Cricket, I trust you to do your job 100%. But i'm never letting you run my eyes again. My gun? Sure. My skimmers? Totally. My eyes? Never again. I need to see chummer.