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.  

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.

GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 25: Ambush!

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Surprise Attack

Specter triggered his Sandy and looked around for whoever had pointed the laser sight at Paxos but saw noone.  He ran over to the take cover at a dumpster across the parking lot from them, hoping he'd be out of the line of fire, while The Peacock moved behind the only parked car and shouted out that they were on the roof of the building above the dumpster.  There looked to be five of them, one sniper and the rest with rifles, and just as the words left their mouth, the assassins opened fire.  Paxos dove backwards, avoiding the sniper's shot, but a follow-up burst from one of the rifleman hit her twice, leaving her writhing in pain; since they were just going to a meet, she'd ditched the netrunner suit for an unarmored dress, and was regretting it now.  At least she was mostly in cover.

Jar was slow to react and by the time he started running, he had already been hit in the back with five rounds.  They damaged his subdermals but left him otherwise unharmed, and he made it down the staircase that led to the Afterlife and out of line of sight.  The Peacock hit the floor behind the car but still got hit twice on their way down.  The last rifleman had to lean over the edge of the building to shoot at Specter, who dove to the ground, but the long burst managed to strike him in the back once anyway.  He leapt back up to his feet and ran towards an alley to flee.

The Peacock scrambled to their knees and got fully behind the car's chassis.  A sniper round pinged off the concrete an inch away from Paxos' stomach, and two more bursts of fire were blocked by the concrete pillar she was partially behind.  Specter wasn't so lucky, and took four rounds to the back, which left him sprawled on the concrete.  Jar shouted up the stairs, asking if anyone else was still alive (The Peacock: "Our reputation's in shambles!").  Paxos crawled backward then lurched over the railing to the floor below; the fall broke a rib, but it was better than being shot.

GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 24: Making The News

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Negotiations

Chromedome finished working on Paxos, then walked over to Specter, still wearing his blood-covered smock and yellow rubber gloves.  The ripper made it clear that he needed payment, and that this wasn't a safehouse.  Specter took out his agent and wired him the eddies, then dialed The Peacock and said they'd be out of his hair soon.  As the doc shuffled away, Peacock answered and welcomed Specter back into the land of the living, then asked after the status of the other two; Specter replied "Mad, but physically fine".  They chatted about the safehouse in Little China that they'd checked out with Jar, then The Peacock said they'd bring the AV around soon and hung up.

City Center had closed their airspace after the crew's activities an hour ago, so they were forced to detour around through Westbrook, which also started to close its air space just as they made it across the river into Arroyo.  They landed in the parking lot of the department store and headed over to retrieve their companions.  The sign said "CLOSED", but Jar did the secret knock on the front door to get "CD" to answer.  Chromedome gave Jar an elbowbump (he still had on the blood-spattered rubber gloves), and led them into the waiting room, mentioning he was looking to get them outta there as soon as possible.

Specter gave them a wave, then The Peacock went over to have a chat with Emma.  They apologized for the gunshot wounds/kidnapping/brain surgery, but she was understandably hostile, and refused to acknowledge that they were her sibling.  The Peacock claimed that they were just looking out for Mary Jane, but Emma scoffed and asked how street criminals could provide better medical care than one of the big three corps in the city.  When they talked about doctors, did they mean more people like "Chromedome"?

GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 23: Emergency Brain Surgery

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Takeoff

Jar broke into the electronic locks and hotwired the AV while Paxos and The Peacock dragged Specter and Emma aboard, followed by Mary Jane on the stretcher.  Paxos tried to Jam all the trackers in everyone/everything, but failed due to the euphoria from the uppers she was on, which meant Jar was going to have to do some open-brain surgery (with only a first aid kit) to disable/remove everything before they switched to the getaway AV under the overpass in Japantown.  He started on Mary Jane as The Peacock throttled up the thrusters and they lifted off.

A single large drone shot out of a magnetic launcher and opened up with a hail of fire from its gun, but The Peacock was able to put sufficient distance between them for it to be ineffective.  As they flew away, something in Mary Jane's skull started beeping, and Jar shouted for The Peacock to turn around: she had a cranial bomb installed and it looked like it was rigged to blow if she got too far away from Militech Tower.  They took the AV back into a circling pattern around the tower to stall for time, but Jar would need 8 minutes, which was an eternity when fleeing from armed drones.

More drones were launching every minute from the launchers, and soon enough an entire swarm was after them, but The Peacock outmaneuvered them with ease with the luxury AV's superior handling and speed.  It was all going too smoothly, so nobody was surprised when an NCPD attack helicopter swooped up from the skyscrapers and commanded them over the radio to land or be fired upon.  Rather than landing, The Peacock went off in a tighter spiraling pattern around and down the tower.  Trying to keep up, a pair of the severely-outclassed drones rammed into one of the AV landing pads on the side of the tower, sending it plunging down to the streets below.

GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 22: Family Reunion

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Kidnapping

With the guard bleeding out of his empty eye socket on the floor, the crew headed down the hall to regroup with Specter.  There were four cells with floor-to-ceiling glass (assumed bulletproof) facing the hallway, one of which was blocked off by curtains.  The cell adjacent held a bunch of medical equipment and was connected to the curtained room by a door inside.  Paxos ran a Ping on the curtained room and detected the kind of devices you'd see if someone was living there (TV, kettle, microwave, etc).  There was also a person with the typical cyberware, including a biomonitor.  The dying man on the floor also had a biomonitor.

Paxos spun up a Jam to hopefully convince whoever was monitoring the biomonitor that it was a false alarm or something while frantically getting into her netrunner suit as quickly as possible.  While she was undressing, she also let the others know that there were gun turrets concealed in the ceiling of the hall, though if they came online odds were the crew were dead anyway.  The Peacock searched the guard's body and grabbed his ID badge, which they swiped through the card reader on the cell with the medical equipment.  It blinked green and the glass door slid open.

Specter and The Peacock drew their weapons and continued onto the side door and went into the curtained room, which looked to have been converted into something resembling a slightly large studio apartment.  Standing in the corner was Mary Jane, The Peacock's sister, though she looked gaunt and sickly, with an IV running to her arm.  The Peacock told her who they were, but given they'd had extensive reconstructive surgery a month or so ago, she didn't believe them.  They tried to think of some touching family memory only the two of them would know, but came up totally blank.

GURPS Cyberpunk 2078 Session 21: Execution

Characters:

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

Braxton "Jar" Jiggs - Cybertech/Ripperdoc     NPC

Get in the Trunk

Specter picked up some kevlar suits for himself and The Peacock to better look like bodyguards, while Paxos went over the footage of Hua Luo: turned out she wore glasses, which meant Paxos could bring her own pair of smart glasses.  Jar threw together a collapsible stretcher for carrying Mary-Jane out of Millitech tower, and The Peacock stashed an AV from their nomad family under the highway in Japantown and covered it with a tarp.  When the day came, they split up and went to North Oaks to kidnap and impersonate the execs; Specter and Jar went to Fenris Moneaux's mansion, and Paxos and The Peacock went to Luo's.

Jar disabled the security fence, and cut a hole for himself and Specter with his toolhand, then the pair snuck across the lawns to the front door, where Moneaux's bodyguard was waiting for the exec.  Once he emerged from the mansion, Specter snuck up behind the two of them, triggered his sandy, and knocked Moneaux out with a blow to the back of the head; the goon, though, reacted quickly enough to block it.  This led to a brief scuffle where Specter overpowered him and knocked him out as well, but it left Specter with a few new bruises.  Jar swapped into Fenris' clothes (some ridiculous haute couture), and the pair stuffed the bodies in the bodyguard's car's trunk and drove off to the AV pickup at the edge of Charter Hills.

Meanwhile, Paxos and The Peacock were climbing over the wall of Hua Luo's mansion.  Paxos hacked into the cameras and looped them, letting them make it to the front door, which she also hacked to shut down its camera.  She hit the buzzer and said she was here to pick up Ms. Luo, who replied over the intercom that the camera seemed to be on the fritz, and that she'd be down shortly.  Before Luo made it down, though, the actual security guard showed up, forcing them to scuttle into a hedge to hide.  They didn't fully escape his notice, though, and the guard relayed over his radio that he was going to take a closer look.