When I Needed You
| When I Needed You | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Skraacha | ||||||||
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Vichnozeleny Moth Southpaw Mendacius | Warehouse of Skraacha | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Austin Sharps | |||||||||
Summary
Ziz hires a team of runners to extract a low-level Skraacha lieutenant for the insect shaman who's camped out under Redmond, for uh, personal reasons.
Background
Ellen Sharps, Sister of Cockroach, has a pressing grudge against her cousin Austin, and to a degree the Skraacha, for ostracizing her after she SURGEd. She pays good money to get him delivered to her and her 'family'.
The Meet
Ziz drops a .loc of a manhole in the Redmond outskirts, and Ellen sends a Watcher to escort the team from there into the deeper tunnels where they can meet. Mendacius, thanks to his phobia of rodents, is hesitant and uncomfortable, but braves the background count of the deep tunnels to encounter both Ellen and Stephen, who gives the team the rundown of the job. While Mendacius is able to see through Stephen's disguise and detect that they are working for an insect shaman and spirit, Moth's successful negotiation secures an acceptable payment for a somewhat icky job.
With their payment in escrow and a vague description of Austin and the location of the Skraacha outpost he's inhabiting, the team excuses themselves, agreeing to deliver him unharmed to a location to be determined within the next five days.
The Plan
Retiring to a hotel, the team attempts to scour the matrix for a Search-able image of Austin, but Mendacius turns up nothing. Consulting blurry satellite images of the outpost, they decide to stake it out overnight and scout it out.
The Run
With overwatch provided from a relatively-nearby wreck of a building, Moth uses her ruthenium polymer cloak to scan the outside of the outpost. Located in the deep barrens, there's a lot of standoff, and the small size of the building and the volume of contraband transported to it suggest that it contains a route to the underground. Moth notes automatic machine gun turrets, the armoured and armed nature of the trucks that deliver the goods there, as well as a scattering of bear traps on the perimeter.
Without a line on the target, Mendacius sends a spirit in to scout further. Thanks to Austin's fully-incorporated tattoos, they show up on his aura, so the team gets a line on where he usually is in the building, and that he occasionally has a look around the outside. Reticent to full-on assault the outpost, the team stakes it out the next day, and finds a local rat-on-a-stick jeep, Rico's Rats. Moth hires the jeep from Rico for ¥150, a good price for the operator, and plans to, with the assistance of Mendacius' mind magic, lure Austin there to be whisked away. Borrowing a van from King Midas, she sets up two vehicles that can transport the target, since, as Vichnozeleny notices, the rat jeep is a serious fire hazard. Mendacius successfully uses Control Thoughts by binoculars to implant the idea in Austin's mind that he should head out for a rat-on-a-stick, and Austin, along with another Skraacha member, heads to the jeep for a roasted rat. Southpaw pretended to be another customer in line for rat, ready to help capture the target. Vic was watching from a sniper position, ready to provide information about ganger movements. Vic, noticing the second gang member with the target, restrains herself from opening fire at the hated criminals. Fortunately, Moth's poor estimates of regular rat-on-a-stick prices lead the other Skraacha to leave in disgust, while Austin's implanted desire for rat leaves him to stay behind. Controlled, Austin is easily subdued, and delivered to a rather creepy member of his cousin's 'family'.
Aftermath
The team gets their filthy lucre, and Austin Sharps gets delivered, unconscious, to a den of bug spirits. Sometimes we can't all win!
Rewards
¥20,000, 3 Karma, 2 CDP
+2 Rep with the Cockroaches
Game Quotes
"What? Why?" - roasted rat cart dwarf, of Rico's Rats |
"A good wh - " - Steven getting hung up on |
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Moth
Moth here! This was my 34th run. This was a good team. Thoughtful planners. I'd be glad to work with any of them again. We were really scratching our heads trying to figure out how we could lure him safely out of that well fortified building when we came up with the lure him out with rat-on-a-stick plan. Thank goodness for Mendacius' mind magic. It worked like a charm! Once he was craving the roasted rat, he came right on out to the food truck. Honestly, I did just fine selling those rat-on-a-stick, even at my best-guess prices. Plenty of foot traffic. Imagine if I'd made one of my baked desserts, or something else truly delicious! I am really thinking how food trucks could be helpful on future runs. It's a great way to get close to a building to stake it out. It's a great way to have disguised team members standing right there - just being in line. You can listen to the conversation of the people in line, or befriend them. You could even do something like a stripper coffee booth if you wanted to really really befriend someone who worked in the building. Plus, I really enjoy cooking and baking! Maybe I will save up for a food truck of my own. Ares makes a Chuck Wagon that would be perfect for it.
Southpaw
Gonna be honest, I was really getting mentally prepared to just gun down everyone in that outpost before we spotted Rico's Rats. And while I was a little worried after finding out what Mendacius' schtick was, I guess at the end of the day I'd rather go with that instead blasting a bunch of folks who are only trying to survive, you know? Really glad to be working with Miss Moth again, she's a real sweetheart and I don't think anyone else could've pulled off running that food cart. Honestly didn't expect rat to taste that good... And I really need to get refreshed on my Or'zet. Been a couple years since I did anything with it, but I still felt like an idiot when I couldn't understand what most of them were saying. Kinda wish I got to try out Vich's Thunderstruck too, but I'm sure she's real overprotective of it. Oh well.
Vichnozeleny
Evergreen reporting in, log one-zero-eight. Target was HVT 'Austin' that needed exfil to Johnson. My guess is nothing comfortable, but that is not my problem. I am paid to do work. That is what I am now. No longer part of the brotherhood, but a mercenary. I need to learn to accept this new reality. Money is what dictates my morals now, not divine decrees. It is... proving difficult to adjust. Many times I felt my fingers itch on the trigger, but I stayed my hand. I hope this will not be a recurring pattern from now on.