Characters:
Alexander "Specter" Marshal - Solo
Pat "Peacock" Watson - "Former" Nomad
Ruby "Paxos" Lang - Netrunner
Pat "Peacock" Watson - "Former" Nomad
Ruby "Paxos" Lang - Netrunner
Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc NPC
A Chat With Gold
Casey Gold's gold-plated fingers and noseplate made the origins of his name obvious, and Jar went into his shop to talk with him. Posing as a friend who was worried about Scarlet, he asked if he'd seen her. Casey eyed Jar up and said that he had, and that it had been crazy. She'd been off the grid for a year, then showed up out of nowhere three nights ago to rob the place. He'd come in with a shotgun and caught her with vials of immunosuppressants in one hand and a half-eaten scopburger in the other. By the time he'd realized who she was, she'd drawn a handgun and started blasting, yelling incoherently; the only word he'd made out over the gunfire was "Arasaka".
He dove for cover, and Scarlet took off in the confusion, leaving only a pile of MacDonnell's wrappers and partially eaten burgers. Jar asked (technically Paxos did, but only Jar was in the shop) if the suppressants would have any RFID trackers, but Casey winked and said he picked up a lot of things second-hand, if you know what I mean. As for how long the suppressants would last, he had no idea. Last time she'd been in, she'd just had a 'deck and some minor stuff like eyes, which meant the vials she'd grabbed would last her months. But if she had new chrome? Who could say.
Having gained all the info they could, the crew piled back into the Peacockmobile and drove to Northside to check out Scarlet's old apartment, which Specter had remembered after some time to think on it. On the way, Jar examined the security footage they'd taken from outside the brothel and determined that Scarlet had gotten a whole lot more 'ware in the last year: a neural port, hidden holster, three shard slots, and what looked like some sort of modified doll suite. Paxos asked if that could turn her into a remote-controlled assassin, to which Jar answered "Maybe".
Enchilada Break
As they crossed into Northside, Paxos noted that word on the street was that the Russian mob was human trafficking for Arasaka, and right on cue, Peacock noticed they were being tailed by a black SUV that screamed "corpo surveillance". If that weren't obvious enough, it had Arasaka corporate license plates. Jar realized they might be tracking the smart pistol they'd picked up the night before, but a quick inspection revealed that it was clean. Peacock looked for a fast food place that had a daily deal on Tuesdays, and pulled into the parking lot of Extreme Enchiladas.
The 'Saka SUV just drove on by, which was surprising, but they decided to head in and grab some food anyway. While they ate their enchiladas, Peacock kept an eye out for the SUV, but it didn't come back around. After a few minutes, though, a pair of men walked in, and they got the impression they were Tyger Claws acting incognito. Tyger Claws worked with Arasaka (or, well, they used to), so it checked out.
Naturally, Paxos walked over and asked the undercover gangers how their Tuesday was going. They didn't spontaneously come clean about spying on them, but both were friendly and continued to make small talk. Now that she was up close and able to take a better look at their gear, Paxos figured they probably weren't here to kill them; all they had were pistols and leather motorcycle gear, hardly the kind of firepower you'd send against a merc team with double their numbers.
Figuring they weren't getting anything more out of this, Peacock ordered two more enchiladas ("for the road"), then the crew headed back out to their car. Jar swept it for bugs and found a tracer, which he planted on a heavy bike that looked like it belonged to some nearby Maelstrom types. They never saw the SUV again, which they took to mean they'd successfully shaken their tail. Now that they weren't being followed, they continued on to Scarlet's old apartment.
The building facade was heavily cracked, as was typical of concrete in Northside, and they headed up the stairs to the second floor. Peacock noticed the door had been forced open relatively recently, so Paxos ran a Ping but didn't find anyone inside. Scarlet could just be Jamming, though, so Jar shorted the cyberlock open and Specter jumped in. It was, in fact, empty, and it looked like the living area had been converted to a kid's bedroom.
Paxos went to the cracked and sun-bleached terminal and hacked in, but all she found were mundane emails from utility companies, the landlord, or some teacher, all sent to "Manuel Torres". Meanwhile, Peacock took a look around and saw subtle signs that the drywall had been patched over, and further investigation revealed bullet holes. Going through the trash, they also found a machine pistol wrapped in multiple wrappers from MacDonnell's. Automatic weapons were illegal, so all purchases were illegal, meaning there'd be no paper trail. Luckily, Specter happened to know an arms dealer.
They drove to a bazaar at the northmost tip of the Northside docks where, nestled among cargo containers, a gaggle of venders hawked their wares. They headed up a rickety stairwell to the second floor looking for Specter's guy, Jason. They found him at a stall made of corrugated tin, and after introductions, Specter stated they were looking for "information guns" on his ex-girlfriend. Jason said that his ex didn't narrow it down because he'd had "hundreds of girlfriends", so Specter specified that he was talking about Scarlet, and laid the machine pistol on the counter.
Jason slid it back across the counter, declaring that he would never traffic in illegal goods, then winked and offered Specter a Techtronica revolver. He agreed to the deal, and Jason told him what he knew: yeah, someone had sold the gun to Scarlet, and someone had noticed that the trackers in the handle went dead after a while. As a bonus for buying the revolver, he tossed in a shard with the last location of the trackers. Assuming she'd taken it home before checking for and removing the trackers, well...
The Eye of the Storm
A quick check showed that the coordinates were deep in Maelstrom territory. They drove over anyway, but as they approached the burned out factory emblazoned with graffiti of a skull spewing smoke out of exhaust pipes which looked to be their destination, a flaming truck rolled out in front of their car. Peacock realized what was happening, and spun the car around just barely fast enough to make it past the second flaming truck that had been meant to box them in. Specter looked down at his rocket launcher dejectedly and muttered "Next time, baby, next time" while petting it.
As they drove away from the hollering gangers that had planned to ambush them, the crew resolved to stash the car down an alley strewn with debris and a convenient tarp and sneak in on foot. They were unaccosted as they approached, and when they were within the a block, they crept up to the side of another wreck of a factory which more or less adjoined their target. There was another building between them, but all of the rooftops were split by only narrow alleys, so going in from above seemed like a safe bet.
Peacock shoved a car door aside revealing a hole big enough to walk through, and the crew headed into the dark interior. Only a few beams of light stabbed down from holes in the ceiling here and there, but they had come prepared with equipment and 'ware to compensate for the low light. Specter spotted a rickety ladder heading up to the roof from a rusty catwalk and climbed, figuring the rooftops would be the least guarded route. A thick plume of black smoke billowed from a huge hole in the adjacent building's roof. This had caused parts of the roof to sag, so the crew balanced their way along the parapet wall of the building and gingerly jumped across the gap.
As they neared the makeshift chimney, they heard shouting and droning heavy metal, which conveniently covered any noises they might make. Further, there were no guards up here, as the warehouse Maelstrom had taken over apparently didn't have any roof access. With another quick jump they were across to their destination: a scorched factory with skylights for them to look through. The coast looked clear, but Paxos ran a Ping and noticed two things: first, a couple of Maelstrom gangers outside their line of sight, elevated enough that they figured they were on a catwalk.
Second, and more intriguing, was a device that had only an on-off toggle and no other indicators of its function, which seemed to be underground. Peacock was sent down on a rope to scout and radio'd up to say that the gangers were in an office that had clear line of sight to the factory floor. They then went to the corner where Paxos had located the on/off signal and, peering through a grate, noticed the tell-tale sign of a high-explosive mine's laser tripwire. Ignoring that for now, Specter rapelled down and they made their way up to the door of the office, where the two of them launched an ambush on the gangers.
Specter toggled his Sandevistan and surged into the room, slamming one into the ground. The other ganger slipped out of his reach, but Peacock then just hit him in the neck with a dart from their stun gun and he convulsed for a bit before collapsing. Now that there were no threats, Paxos and Jar slid down the rope to the factory floor before proceeding to the landmine which Paxos disarmed remotely. Specter came down and lifted the grating in the floor, then climbed down into what was apparently a service tunnel. It had a low 5' ceiling, forcing everyone to crouch, and after a single turn they found a ladder going down.
The crew climbed down with Specter in the lead, and he arrived at the bottom, where he took cover against a blind corner of solid concrete. He made some room at the bottom for Peacock to have backup, then rounded the corner, revealing a small den, with Scarlet standing in the open, looking right at him. Discarded fast food wrappers and clamshell packaging had been piled in one corner, and a rat's nest of shiny mylar survival blankets overflowed in another, while a small workbench with a set of tools sat at waist height along one wall.
Before the rest of the crew could climb down, Scarlet shouted for Specter to stop, which he did. Next, she asked who sent them (Specter: "Oh, shit, I have to do the talking?"). He claimed that nobody had sent him, and that he'd come to find her because he was concerned. She didn't buy it for a second, and asked if it was the mob or Arasaka? Specter relented and gave away that the Russians had sent them, but he really was here to rescue her. Still not believing him, Scarlet tsk'd and Specter and Peacock's HUDs lit up with alarms that they were being hacked.
A jolt of electricity arced through Specter's spine, but when he triggered the sandy it still worked. As time slowed to a crawl, he leapt towards Scarlet and knocked her right out with a single punch from his gorilla gloves. Now that Scarlet was unconscious and not a threat, Paxos hacked into her 'deck and shut it down, while Peacock bound and gagged her with duct tape. There was nothing else interesting in her den, just another smart pistol and some body armour. Scarlet also had a pair of heavy tech pistols concealed in hidden holsters in her thigh, which they also took.
The crew retreated back out the way they'd came, Specter carrying Scarlet over one shoulder, then drove out into the Badlands to ask her some questions. On the way, Jar gave her 'ware a more thorough examination and found that Scarlet was sporting a full-suite neural port, something you'd expect to see on one of the elite agents of Netwatch, not some small-time runner girl. They came to a stop in a swirl of dust, moved Scarlet to the trunk, then woke up her up and tore the duct tape from her mouth to see what she knew.
Paxos led the interrogation, asking how Arasaka fit into this. Scarlet replied that they were the ones who'd crammed all this chrome into her skull that was driving her psycho, for a start. Didn't know who specifically was in charge over there, but had been planning on finding out from the guy in charge of the mob (Scarlet: "Some guy called the raven" Peacock: "No, it's The Raven"). The mob had abducted her for 'Saka, and after that it was mostly a blur until she woke up on the street covered in blood, her doll suite malfunctioning. Peacock didn't care, and told the others they were just in this for the eddies, but Paxos and Specter were concerned they were stepping over an ethical line.
Notes:
Everybody is now taking turns playing Jar, which means they have to improvise the slang that his player did. Turns out it's remarkably difficult.
MacDonnell's is legally distinct from McDonald's and basically took over their buildings during the first crash when any sort of financial records were up in the air.
Immunosuppressants mostly work like in real life: they prevent the body rejecting implants. In game terms, the psychological strain of the body rejecting the implants lowers Humanity.
Nobody in our group has been to a fast food taco place (or similar) in over 10 years. Does Taco Bell serve enchiladas? We may never know.
Peacock's roll to evade the second flaming truck was a nat 17, which they lucked into another 17, and finally a 15.
Paxos is really curious to learn the bigger picture of what's going on. Specter doesn't really want to kill his ex-gf, especially considering she's pretty justified.
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