GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 28: Garage Door Opener

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Waiting For Grout To Dry

The crew debated over what to do next for a while until they realized that the gunfire had stopped.  The Peacock could hear what sounded like casual chatter from upstairs, suggesting the Tyger Claws had won, and Specter was sent up to take a look.  Through eavesdropping, he learned that they were calling Sota in early, so security would be ramping up tomorrow, then headed back down the stairs to regroup.  The crew decided to climb back out the hole in the cells, but as The Peacock went they knocked loose some concrete chunks which were followed by a pile of soil: if anyone looked in the cells in the next few days, it'd be obvious that something had been inside the basement.

On their way back to the car, they rounded a corner directly into the results of a firefight.  A Trauma Team medic was going from body to body, checking for paying clients and then loading them into the gleaming white AV, while a pair of armed guards stood with assault rifles at the ready.  When they saw the crew, they raised them, and one ordered them to freeze, but the other lowered his rifle whispered "hey, that's the Jar!  Better leave these guys alone".  The medic finished loading the last of the wounded then banged his fist twice on the side of the hull; at that, the guards loaded up and the AV sped off towards the nearest hospital.

Paxos looked over those the four who were left: two of them looked to be small-time gang members judging by their lime green bandanas, while the other two seemed to have been their victims.  They hadn't been harmless, though; judging by the wounds on the gangers, one of the victims had pulled a gun and been a good enough shot to take them down with her.  Paxos asked for the first-aid kit and stopped the bleeding of the non-gang members, and started patching one up as best she could.  Before she could start tending to the other, The Peacock got bored and said they were leaving with the car.  Her desire to help outweighed by her desire to not take transit, Paxos went along.

Overwatch

The next day the crew regrouped and did some planning before heading up to Northside.  Specter bought a suppressed sniper rifle, intending to provide fire support from a nearby rooftop if necessary.  The rest of the crew picked up the shovels, plasma cutter, compressed air tank, and batteries they needed to cut into and then power the datavault.  For a while they debated setting up a distraction in case things got hairy, but eventually relented figuring they wouldn't be able to keep anything going for the several hours they would need.

As the sun set, Specter took up position on top of the VRcade's 3 story building and the other's snuck up to the hole without alerting a pair of oblivious thugs sitting out front.  In the cells, four gangers, one a netrunner, were looking at the north wall, and some eavesdropping learned that they were trying to figure out why the door to the garage was jammed, but the 'runner wasn't seeing anything electronic.  Paxos spun up a Jam to keep them out of the other 'runner's notice, then, not thinking they could take out 4 people silently, the crew headed down the alley to the east and looped around to the back of the building... and out of Specter's vision.

Four junior Tyger Claws were sitting out back, keeping a watch on the gang's bikes.  Paxos ran and got a six-pack of cheap booze from a vending machine and walked out of the shadows to distract the teens, which worked like a charm.  While she got some children (hey, they're bad children!) buzzed, Jar and The Peacock headed down the ramp to the parking garage's locked door, and found that it couldn't be opened by hand.  A quick examination by Jar reasoned that the motor was keeping it locked, so he searched around for something to cannibalize for parts.

Eventually, he came across a charred bit of chromed skull from some unfortunate Maelstrom member which contained some shredded cybernetics, probably from an internal agent.  Within a matter of minutes, he had finished the garage door opener, and with a hum and clatter the door to the parkade opened.  The lights were off, so Jar asked The Peacock what they could see with their anime eyes: there were maybe six or seven dead bodies scattered around.  A closer look found that they didn't look to be either Maelstrom or Tyger Claws, and that they'd starved to death.

Since dead bodies weren't going to attack them, Jar closed the garage door while they waited for Paxos to get a change to break away from the drinking circle.  Before she could, however, they started hearing loud banging from the door to the basement.  Not wanting to risk getting into a firefight 2 on 4, they retreated back out and up the ramp, into the alley, closing the door behind them.  Paxos finally regrouped, and they decided to head back to the hole to the cells: now that the gangers had moved to try to force the door, they had an opening.

At suggestion of the rest of the crew, Specter left the sniper rifle on the roof and headed down, grabbing his assault rifle on the way, to regroup with the others.  Everybody climbed into the hole without issue, and Paxos ran a Ping.  The group of four were now exploring the parking garage, and there were only another pair of gangers on this floor, in the drug lab where they needed to dig.  Sneaking into position outside the drug lab, they rushed through the doors and took out the surprised pair with a taser dart and a fist from Specter, then started digging out the shattered concrete.

Paxos kept watch with her Ping still up and rendering them invisible to the other 'runner with her Jam.  After about an hour of shoveling concrete, the group of four started walking towards the drug lab.  She gave the warning to the others, and they were more than happy to drop their shovels.  As they readed their weapons and got into position for an ambush, they heard one of the gangers complain about how they were going to have to move all those dead bodies, and then the door knob turned.

Notes:

Jar is semi-famous because of his refusal to disguise.  Rules-wise this is just reflavouring his +6 to all reaction rolls from his amazing fashion.  After some of their bigger jobs (especially the rescue mission at Militech Tower), every PC has the option to buy Reputation up to 2 at 5 points a level, but nobody has.

One of the "distractions" Paxos' player thought up was a car bomb which would be _quite_ the distraction indeed.  Another was scattering "free vouchers" for sex workers outside the precinct.

Since The Peacock is the only one who speaks Japanese, there was some thought of disguising them up as a Tyger Claw.  Naturally, their name would be Kujaku, which google translate tells me means "Peacock".