GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 27: But He's Not Just Any Man

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

He's Skeleton Man

The chrome skeleton just stood there, emitting a "growling" sound of many different tones layered on top of each other.  After a brief mute conference on the cell phones in their skulls, the crew decided to back away slowly and take the long way to the bus stop, and it did not pursue.  On the way, Jar opined that it was probably heavily resistant to bullets, what with being a skeleton and all.

The next day, they got down to planning the specifics of the digging, vault-cracking, and powering the computers, eventually settling on using expansive demolition grout for the dig, followed by shoveling.  Their Militech plans suggested the door had an electronic lock, but without power, they couldn't spoof it, and digging down to find the external power lines was just going to add more time, so they elected to get a plasma torch.  As for power, a portable battery bank should get the computers going long enough to get the files they were after.

After a shopping trip to pick up their "construction equipment", the crew headed back to the VRcade so Jar could rig the sound system to act as a distraction by playing sounds of a firefight.  Meanwhile, The Peacock used the scope built into their cybereyes to take a closer look at the hotel room where they'd spotted the Militech team earlier.  There were only two people there today, and judging by the supplies, they were loading up to take the precinct by force sometime soon.  Later, Sarah, member of the Animals and Specter's ex, showed up again, slowly walking down the street smoking a cigarette.  She was a lot more noticeable, but stealth wasn't really the Animals' style.  

(De)-Construction Crew

Next morning, the crew loaded up in the car The Peacock had borrowed from their nomad family with all their gear and drove up to Northside, parking a block away and preparing everything in the VRcade across the street.  When they saw an opening, they snuck across and crawled down into the basement of the police station through the small hole at ground level they'd spotted earlier, with Specter carrying most of the stuff.  They made it down into the holding cells without issue, and the doors had even been pried off so they didn't need to cut their way out.

A pair of youths were chatting in the burned out former drug lab across the hall (which would be where the crew would start digging), and Paxos and The Peacock went over and threatened them into leaving while putting on their best Tyger Claws impersonation.  Once the kids were gone, Specter came over with the concrete drill while Jar started preparing the grout.  When they were all set up, Jar triggered the speakers in the VRcade to start playing gunfire with a remote, and Specter started drilling holes in the floor, the noise less noticeable with the racket from across the street.

Right as they finished and were packing up to leave, they heard more gunfire erupt from somewhere upstairs.  The Peacock headed back to the hole in the cells and peaked out, spotting five lightly armed gangoons looking confused.  Another ganger ran out and shouted that they were under attack from the ear of the building, which sent everybody running back inside.  Curious what was going on, The Peacock climbed up and crept down an alley along the side of the police station to see what was going on.

The rear of the building was under fire from a pair of Militech gunmen who were stationed in the hotel room, and several gangoons were down in the alley, lying in pools of blood.  Figuring the corpos were the bigger threat, The Peacock lined up a shot and put a round into the skull of one of the gunmen, then waited in their concealed position.  The shooting stopped as the other corpo dragged the wounded away, though they heard more gunfire erupt from the far side of the building, accompanied by a familiar synthetic "growling": the skeleton had joined the battle.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew had taken up firing positions on the stairwell to the basement in case anybody broke in.  Specter even went so far as standing on the landing with his Chameleon Skin on.  Nobody showed up, though, and when his Skin ran out of charge, he retreated back to the basement.  The Peacock heard a Tyger Claw shout at three people to watch the alley but for everyone else to go to the empty lot, then retreated down the alley to the hole and regrouped with the rest of the crew.

Notes:

New Disadvantage: Social Stigma (Gamer).  It's worth -10, and engenders all the same treatment as Monster (as they deserve).

I can't believe they unlocked the secret Skeleton Man DLC mission and then didn't even try to play it, truly disappointing.  Oh well, it showed up later anyway.

You'd think it'd be hard to figure out what was happening in a hotel room on the fifth floor from the street over, but The Peacock's anime eyes are just that good.