GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 26: Many People Think He's Just a Regular Man

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Under New Management

Jar picked up a black market grenade launcher implant plus a dozen or so grenades for Specter, who went and got it installed at Chromedome's; it was an extensive surgery and he was out for a week.  Meanwhile, the rest of the crew continued their planning.  They knew the pre-crash data vault was somewhere under the abandoned Offshore Dr NCPD station that the Tyger Claws had taken over, but not where exactly.  According to the dossier, it was hooked up to the old city grid, which meant they'd have to bring in an external supply to run it, and it likely had nerve gas defense measures, though hopefully they'd have decayed in the decades since the crash.

To deal with the location problem, they went to the Watson district administrative building in Little China to hopefully find someone from the records department who'd give them survey data.  Jar hit on one of the clerks, but they weren't receptive ("Maybe if he wasn't wearing the alligator-skin shoes"), but between Paxos and The Peacock, they got the data they were after.  It looked like the ground under the police station was rubble with some loose soil mixed in, so it'd be quite a bit of work to get down to the vault, which had shown up in the survey but was ignored in the name of expediency.

Some quick comparisons to their recollections of the inside of a pre-fab NCPD precinct suggested the vault was under the armory, which meant it wasn't too far from the sewers, but those came with their own problems.  The city government had installed kill drones and occasionally unleashed nerve gas to kill the homeless "rats" that lived there.  Either way, when it came to digging through the concrete, they had a couple options.  Some heavy tools like a rock saw or jackhammer would be faster, but loud, or they could go with some expansive demolition foam which would take a long time but be much quieter.

To try to learn a bit more about the structure of the Tyger Claws in Northside, The Peacock and Paxos went to Club Penguin in Kabuki, a known TC front, to eavesdrop on drunk gangoons.  They learned that the newly-promoted "oyabun" Sota Nagasawa had lucked out and was being given a "family" and put in charge of the area's rackets.  The kids were just the first wave, and next would be about two dozen gangoons who would start serious renovations.  In a few weeks, Nagasawa himself would be coming out with his heavy hitters and taking things over.

When they left the club and went to hail a cab, a pair of strangers approached them on the sidewalk, one with a hand on a sheathed katana, the other holding what looked like a paintball gun.  The swordsman said that normal people were getting pretty sick of "all you chromed up psychos".  Maybe they should follow Maelstrom's example and get the hell out of Night City.  After a glance at The Peacock, Paxos thanked the two for their efforts to clean up the streets and wired them 100 eddies.  That was enough for the thugs, who retreated back into the crowd.

Familiar Faces

Figuring they were going to need a big distraction (well, that or killing everyone), Paxos, Jar, and The Peacock went to do recon on the buildings around the former cop shop.  They ended up choosing an old broken down VRCade across the street; most things of any value had been stolen, but there were no squatters, and they discovered that the controls for the PA and neon signs were all still in more-or-less working order, needing only minor repairs.

As they were going to leave, The Peacock noticed movement in the abandoned hotel behind the police station.  They zoomed in with their telescopic cybereye and saw a familiar face: the Militech guard they'd shot outside Mary-Jane's cell back in the tower, and another four operatives in the same room.  Further observation suggested they were staking out the police station.  On the one hand, this meant they weren't after the crew, but on the other, it now seemed that they had competition.

Another day, the crew went back so The Peacock could lipread the Tyger Claws kids in case there was any actionable gossip only to find that the real gangoons had showed up.  Careful to keep a low profile, they observed from the safety of the abandoned VRCade.  They learned something of the gang's plans for the area: the drug lab Maelstrom had been running was trashed so they'd need to start from scratch.  The brothel in the basement and protection rackets could be restarted whenever, but the location was pretty shit in terms of potential johns or businesses.  Many of the thugs were shocked Maelstrom had been able to make any money out of this place.

While scoping the place out, Paxos noticed the hulking physique of Sarah, member of the Animals gang and one of Specter's exes, eating at a scopburger place abutting the station with another slightly less large man.  They were also keeping a close eye on the station.  Between the Tyger Claws, Militech, and the Animals, this "milk run" was getting more and more dangerous.  Who was going to show up next, The Peacock's long-term rival and former business partner, Davis Numbers?

Now that they were looking at it, the burger joint had a camera watching the back alley, and the crew decided to check out the recordings to see if there was anything useful.  In particular, Paxos thought they might see Militech doing something (or maybe the ghosts that were haunting the place!).  After waiting until after midnight, so there wouldn't be a manager present, they walked over, Jar handed the acid-scarred teen manning the register a hundred eddies, and said he was here to steal their camera footage.

The kid said they didn't pay him enough to care and let them through to the office ("What am I gonna do, call the cops? *looks at police station next door taken over by gang members*").  Paxos effortlessly hacked into the terminal and spun up the footage on the monitor for everyone to watch.  Scrubbing through, they saw mostly junior Tyger Claws up to no good, but after a few minutes hit the jackpot: a walking chrome skeleton sent a cluster of the terrified gang teens off screaming.

Everyone turned to look at Jar, in hopes he could tell them what the hell they were looking at.  He pitched a theory: an extreme cyborg conversion, where everything except the skeleton and the bare minimum of actuators to keep it mobile were entirely removed.  It's not the kind of thing you could get just any ripper to do, not that most people would want to.  Right up Maelstrom's alley, though, and someone who'd gotten the procedure forgetting who they were and "haunting" their old hangouts made some sense.

No idea on the combat-effectiveness of the 'borg, though.  You could fit a surprising amount of stuff in bones, especially a ribcage.  They left the burger joint, uncertain of what, if anything, to do with this new information.  As they rounded the first corner, their conversation was cut suddenly short as they came face to face with a glimmering chrome skeleton.

Notes:

Specter spent the entire session recovering from the surgery to implant his grenade launcher arm.  As is usual when this happens, he got to play Jar instead.

This heist is a bit of a special situation, as the police station is going to get more reinforced over time (and already has once).  As such, the players are allowed to "bank" BAD reductions in advance to compensate for it increasing later.

The Militech squad in this mission would 100% have been lead by Emma Watson had she not been kidnapped/rescued in The Peacock's bonus mission.

Paxos originally crit-failed the roll to hack into the scopburger computer.  It's now canon that if a netrunner flatlines because they fucked up hacking into a McZargald's, the drink named after them at the Afterlife will just be a glass full of mayonnaise.

The "skeleton" was almost immediately referred to as Skeleton Man (gender-neutral).  It was jokingly suggested this might be my DMPC.  I prefer to think of this more as an easter egg on the random encounter table in this area only.