GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 7: Ow My Legs

Characters:

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc
Alexander "Specter" Marshal - Solo
Pat "Peacock" Watson - "Former" Nomad
Ruby "Paxos" Lang - Netrunner

Breaking and Entering

After a slight detour to pick up a replacement agent for Paxos from a vending machine, the crew returned to the Luxura Hotel, and by the time they got back it was around 3AM.  While the others discussed how to go about searching a 30-story tower, Specter vanished (except for his floating clothes) using his Chameleon Skin, then went in and scouted out the lobby, which was empty.  There were a couple security cameras but they were all obviously destroyed, either aiming down or just lying on the ground amid the piles of garbage bags.  The lobby was open to the sea air, the all-glass exterior having long-ago been destroyed, and everything was corroded and moldy, the walls covered in bright pink grafitti.

It looked like the main elevator was still in working order, and there was a staircase they could take if it wasn't.  Specter returned and they decided to try to find a squatter on a lower floor to tell them what areas of the hotel the gang controlled.  Taking the stairs, they prowled through the second floor, eventually finding a locked hotel room, and Jar picked the lock using his tech hand.  When they opened the door, it jangled a primitive alarm made of tin cans full of cutlery and the inhabitant, a haggard looking bearded man, grabbed a shotgun and yelled at them incoherently.

Jar closed the door and they decided to just scope out the building one floor at a time, going from the top down.  The elevator was even more nasty than the lobby, the shiny metal walls dulled from layers of brown grime.  Floor 30 was a ruin, partially collapsed, with basketball-sized holes in the walls, probably from that helicopter strafing run a year ago.  They crept down the stairs to the 29th floor, which was similar, except that there were patchwork security cameras watching the stairs, and the bank of rooms across from them looked to have been repaired.

Paxos looped the cameras and they walked out into the hallway to get a better look.  There were more cameras, watching the elevator and the ends of the hallway, so that all approaches to the bank were surveilled.  Only the first and last of the rooms on that side of the building still had actual doors, with the middle ones replaced by slabs of steel, like a bulkhead.  Trying to avoid the front door(s), Peacock suggested they check out one of the neighbouring rooms, and they moved to the (destroyed) corner suite, where it looked like there had been a bonfire made from broken furniture in the center of the room, the carpet singed and the ceiling blackened.

They went out onto the balcony and saw that it was still attached to the adjacent suite, though there was a bullethole-ridden plastic privacy divider.  While Paxos scrounged around for some rope to secure themselves for the climb over, Peacock peeked through the holes and toggled their night vision to see what was going on in the adjacent rooms.  Most of them were blocked off with steel bulkhead, but the closest two had normal windows.  An improvised door had been fitted into the wall to the second room over.  No lights were on in either one, but they couldn't get a good view from where they were.

They leaned over the divider and could see two people in the closest room having sex on a bed that was right up against the wall, but nobody else.  Paxos got back with the rope and ran a Ping, which pulled back tons of hits from all kinds of "smart" devices, including such innovations as RFID-filled mattresses, blankets, and clothing.  Filtering that took some work and she was only able to pick up the contents of the closest room through the wall: there were two handguns on a nightstand, and each of the couple had the standard 'ware, as well as one arm weapon and one grapple gun.

Before going in, they decided to do some more surveillance.  Paxos headed over to the other end of the gang's bank of rooms and Pinged it, picking up all kinds of RFID-tagged single-use surgical equipment, plus a dormant heavy turret, and a pile of miscellaneous cyberware that had definitely been removed from the gang's victims.  Not wanting to risk the turret, the crew returned to the first room and climbed over the divider, then Specter opened the sliding door and knocked out the couple having sex.

The crew snuck forward into the next room, finding another four sleeping gangers who Specter bonked into double-unconsciousness; Jar was disappointed to find that Gunthersson wasn't there.  The rest of the base was empty of people, so they turned on the lights and walked through the remaining rooms, which were a living space, cold storage with freezers stacked on top of each other, and the operating room.  Peacock went through the freezers in the storage and found first the guy that had been abducted that night, and then Ezra, minus an arm and both eyes.  Both of them were being kept on ice and pumped full of morphine.

Jar was able to resuscitate them both, though Ezra was still out cold and would need proper medical care.  The abductee (who turned out to be called Hachiro) came to and asked what had happened.  Paxos lied, saying they'd been hired to rescue him in exchange for a payment once they got him, and held out her hand for eddies.  Hachiro didn't really have much choice and agreed to give them a cool 1k in exchange for escort to an NCART station somewhere in the city proper.  While this was going on, Jar and Specter had gone into the surgical suite and found the stack of stolen 'ware in vacuum-sealed plastic bags stacked up in a big plastic bin.

Before leaving, Jar sabotaged the turret and then went around killing all the gangers and cutting out their 'ware; sure it all broke in the process, but he could repair them with little difficulty, and it was more about sending a message.  He left a pair of his "Ow My Legs!" shorts beside a guy whose leg he'd removed and then the crew returned to the lobby and loaded up their ill-gotten goods in Peacock's car.  Peacock then had Jar disable the security on the gangers' van (turned out to be a taser built into the door handles) and took that for themself as a vehicle for the taxi company they were planning on starting.

They dropped off Hachiro in Santo Domingo as they had agreed, and then Paxos called Sabela to let her know the "good news".  She explained that they'd drop Ezra off in a parking structure close to the Trauma Team hospital where Sabela worked, and warned her that though he had survived, he was in critical condition and would need some long-term rehabilitation (to say nothing of any mental damage done).  He was left in a corner, and they sped off to divvy up their take.

Notes:

There was some talk of burning the building down, but this was shot down because of collateral damage.  Good thing they didn't, because that would have killed Ezra too (and made the body much harder to identify and retrieve).

The idea of "talking to a squatter" would have worked a lot better if it wasn't the middle of the night and they hadn't broken into his room.

The van they stole is going to give Peacock a long-term goal roll with Tech (Vehicles), skipping over the typical $1k and 1 week requirements.  In exchange, they're not taking a cut from Sabela or the cyberware (which probably be around $2k all told?).

Paxos is thinking of installing a set of cyberlegs with Grip Feet that was in the pile of 'ware.

Speaking of the 'ware they found, my random table has given them a unique rare drop that's not available for general purchase: a Mr. Studd XXXL Cyberpenis.  If someone installs it, they will unlock the Erotic Arts skill.

Jar has to repair everything he broke, but that should be trivial.