GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 15: Fencing a Brainchip

Characters:

Alexander "Specter" Marshal - Solo
Pat "Peacock" Watson - "Former" Nomad
Ruby "Paxos" Lang - Netrunner

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Layin' Low

By the time the crew left the safehouse and walked out into the cool rain, it was already halfway through October.  They decided to keep a low profile through to November to give the heat some time to clear before they took on any new jobs or tried to fence the bioware.  Once that was done, they went out shopping for new gear and furthering their goals; Peacock in particular picked up a heavy tech pistol so they could punch through armour.  Specter bribed the front-desk employees of the No-Tell Motel to let him know when someone worth blackmailing came through so that he could send a gang underling to take incriminating photos.  Paxos did more research into Peru to get a sense for the local language, and also started learning Spanish.

Peacock, meanwhile, started carjacking people to get some vehicles for their taxi company.  A risky proposition, but they didn't see any consequences so far.  During the day, they would look into the shard they'd gotten from Jennifer Thracker several months ago, the one about the Militech operation that had been cloning their sister Mary Jane, and came out with two names.  Jackie Wu, one of Specter's many ex-girlfriends, was a Militech exec in charge of the cloning program, and had provided their Mary's DNA.  Rin Shimamura, an Arasaka scientist (and recent defector from Yorinobu's faction to Michiko's), had provided the patents and formulae needed for the brain implants and the firmitas anti-psychotic.

They decided to start looking into Shimamura, as she was lower ranking, and tracked down someone at Arasaka who might know more: Bonya Slade, who was Jar's ex-lover.  Specter continued strengthening the Wingless Dragon Gang's position by stealing a shipment of cyberware from Maelstrom and planting it at a Tyger Claws hideout.  The death rate in Watson doubled overnight.  Paxos did another course of luxury therapy, and felt much better about all the killing.

Jar had spent this time trying (and failing) to find a fixer willing to take the bioware brainchip off their hands ("The cooler's running out of batteries!"), but nobody was interested; it was still too hot.  The crew decided to just wait more in hopes someone would be interested, as the little pink blob was probably worth at least 50keb on its own, if they could just find a buyer.  It paid off, and just before December, after much badgering from Jar, his usual tech fence relented and said he maybe had a lead on a buyer for the brainchip.

The Handoff

There was a complication, as there always is: Fernandez' usual security were in the hospital or in the ground after a deal had gone bad with the Animals, so he wanted the crew to step in and guard him.  In exchange, he'd give them a larger cut of the sale.  Since this was easy eddies, they agreed.  A couple days before the meet, he gave them more info: it was going down at the Black Room, a club downtown renowned for their shows incorporating lots of flashing lights.  Further, their cut of the sale would be 72,000 eurodollars.  The buyer was Militech.

On the day of, they rolled up in disguises to the Black Room around 11PM, having parked Peacock's car in a parking structure across the street from which Jar was keeping a watch.  At the door, the bouncers found Specter's concealed handgun, so he went and put it in the trunk before returning (though both Paxos and Peacock had successfully smuggled theirs in).  Shouting over the music (the marquee out front said DJ BADMAN was playing soviet hardbass), Fernandez led them in and upstairs to the private booth where they'd make their deal.  It had a good view of the dance floor, the lights flashing in time with the bass.

Peacock checked for bugs and found one hidden in the seat cushions; they crushed it between their thumb and forefinger.  Jar chimed in that their client seemed to be here: one suit with black carbon hands and two gorillas with heavy subdermal armour.  Soon enough, the door to their booth slid open and standing there, matching Jar's description, was Specter's ex, Jackie Wu.  It took him a moment to recognize her; her hair was different since the last time they'd met, and the carbon hands were new.

Jackie took a seat, flanked by her guards, at which point Peacock realized one of them was their sister, Emma, her third arm adding an awkward bulk under a trenchcoat.  Luckily for the crew, neither of the two saw through their disguises, and the meet proceeded all according to plan.  After brief pleasantries, the items they were exchanging were brought forth: a briefcase carrying neatly stacked physical eurodollars was unshackled from the male bodyguard's wrist, while Specter presented the cooler containing the bioware.

As Jackie and Fernandez examined the items, Jar called in that a bunch of gangers with weapons, looking like Tyger Claws, had charged the bouncer out front, quickly beating him bloody and continuing into the club.  Simultaneously, Emma leaned close to Jackie and whispered something that nobody made out.  Paxos breached into the stage lights systems, and just after she finished Jar called in again: this time, some corpo security types in navy and orange were rushing in, weapons drawn.

Fernandez and Jackie both stood and agreed to vacate the premises as quickly as possible; Specter, who had been keeping an eye on the dance floor, saw the gangers pushing through the crowd below.  Once Jackie and her entourage were out of the room, Paxos flashed the club with the stage lights, momentarily blinding the gangers, and the crew ran out of the room at a sprint towards the staff only area down the hall.  Paxos hacked the electronic lock, and they headed down a staircase as screams and gunfire punctuated the music behind them.

As they continued towards the exit, Jar gave them another update: the corpos were back outside yelling at each other and rubbing their eyes.  A dust storm was picking up so visibility was going to shit pretty soon.  Peacock spotted the emergency exit, which had a bunch of boxes of booze stacked in front of it.  Specter pushed them out of the way and the crew filed out into the alley, which was filled with swirling clouds of red dust.  Out on the street, two cars collided head on, bringing traffic to a stop.

Rather than cross the street and risk getting into a firefight with the corpos, the crew headed off on foot and told Jar to bring the car to a pedestrian walkway a few blocks away to pick them up.  As he up the parking garage to the highway on-ramp, Jar noticed a sniper who was overlooking the street.  Other than the grit of sand and dust lining their mouths and nostrils, the crew regrouped without any further issues.

With Peacock back at the wheel, they dropped off Fernandez back at his place, a junk shop that had originally been a visitor's center.  A half-dozen gangers were beating a man to death in the parking lot, but Fernandez said it was no big deal and they wouldn't come near his place anyway.  Jar was dropped off next, but on the way to the Glen, a gang of Tyger Claws motorbikes, their neon-lit wheels illuminating the dust cloud, jumped the divider from oncoming traffic and gave chase ("Did someone start a gang war or something?").  Peacock lost them with ease, and everyone went home to wash off the dust as best they could.

Ill-Gotten Gains

With his share of their new phat stacks, Specter spent a full week in hospital getting a military-grade sandevistan implanted.  Meanwhile, Peacock did a course of therapy, and Paxos spent some time hawking paydata to make a tidy profit.  One night, Paxos heard a knock at her door, and was surprised when she checked her security cameras: it was one of the clone children.

Notes:

I have made the terrible decision of including both Smart Guns (the homing gyrojet weapons from the CP2077 video game) and Smartguns (the cyberware).  This has led to multiple occurrences where people have to repeatedly clarify which one they're talking about.

Specter is currently sitting at exactly 0 Humanity from the super sandevistan.  I'm sure it's fine.

Specter was sad he couldn't bring the rocket launcher to the meet.

Peacock added a flap to their mirror shades so that their telescoping eye can pop through.

Flashbangs blind people, which means it includes someone using Ping + Chyron to see through walls.

Holdout using special rules different from the SSR is annoying (if understandable).

When the two different groups of armed thugs showed up to the club, Peacock started playing Sandstorm, which turned out to perfectly predict the random weather roll like 5 minutes later.

Specter is at 0 Humanity.  Hope he doesn't lose any because it'll drive him cyberpsycho.  He also gained all the following disads:

• Compulsive Partying
• Selfish
• Bad Temper
• Flashbacks (Severe) (Though this one goes away if he gets above 10)

In hindsight, I should have had the corpos go through the side door so the PCs didn't have an easy way out of the club.  Oh well.