INSIDE

The guy with the assault rifle is none too happy about this turn of events. He turns heel and runs for the cover of the next door down the hall.

Toombs tears the little radiation sensor off of his suit. Once it's comfortably in his hands, it launches across the hall at the poor sucker of a guard who just walked out of the security center. The sensor impacts the wall hard enough to crater it. St. V follows a moment after. The guard is wearing a thin armored vest; the sort of thing meant to stop .32 rounds, and has a handgun at his side. Nothing intended to take flying Geiger counters or Valentine's strobe-lit freight-train of a fist. The troll smashes the guard in the face. The poor man stumbles back into the security post, falling over the chair and crashing into the ground.

No sign of the guy with the assault rifle. He almost certainly ducked into one of the rooms. The two Shadowrunners you hit earlier are both on the ground, either dying or unconscious.

OUTSIDE

The techie in the car waits a moment, as the pool of blood around her compatriot's head spreads. Then the car pulls out backwards, and makes a three-point turn to exit the facility.

The rigger had sort of been expecting this.  She let the vehicle get well clear of the garage doors - and the second vehicle while adjusting her controls to slow her decent and bring her onto a vector slowly approaching the departing car.

In theory, there was nothing to be gained by stopping the techie.  It was outside the mission parameters.  But the guy had just killed a teammate in cold blood.  Plus, having a distraction outside might relieve some pressure on her friends inside.  To put the nail in his coffin, what self-respecting rigger parks in a way so as to require a 3-point turn to make a get-away?

She toggled her ammo to EX and took her time aiming before placing a nice 6-round burst directly in the center of the engine block.  Nothing likely to cause an explosion, just enough to ensure the car wouldn't be driving or steering or doing much of anything other than plowing into the nearest tree . . .

quote:

13:59, Today: Copperhead rolled 15 successes using 17d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 2 with rolls of 3,4,5,4,5,5,(6+3)9,4,2,(6+2)8,(6+6+6+4)22,1,2,5,2,4,1.  Stop dat car!

Base damage 11S becomes 5M.  Then stages up a bunch . . .

She'll apply successes beyond any needed to avoid dodging or taking the damage below D to avoid damage to the occupants.  She wants the techie out cold, not dead.  She needs someone around to take the heat for the mess they're making . . .

St. V keeps one eye on where the guard with the assault rifle went as he starts to backtrack toward the decker, loosing access to his pistol under his suit as he moves.  When he gets to the decker, he drags the guy back to the doorway St. V first burst forth from. "Don't wanna murder the guy if I don't gotta," he says to Toombs quietly over the subvocal mic.  "Plus he could be useful."  The troll will sling the unconscious decker over one shoulder (face towards St. V's stomach, and jolting him again first if necessary) and start heading back to the elevator so they can climb up to the getaway car.

I realize this is multiple rounds of actions, so just let me know how much of it happens before this intended series of actions gets interrupted.

Outside ...

damage would still be 7S (plus explosive rounds)--there aren't any 9S weapons available at chargen. But it does stage up to like a million.

The car doesn't even dodge. It's likely being driven by autopilot, not an individual. The hood crumples like wet tissue, and explosives rounds burst inside the engine block. In a moment, an 8,000 nuyen V-8 ruptures and a belch of flames. Gears grind as the car rolls to a stop.

You can be pretty sure the lobby guards are aware something is going on.


St. V has no issue scooping the decker -- and deck -- and heading for the exit. With no resistance in sight, Toombs is able to scoop the shaman too. After all, when there's time for professional courtesy, why not extend it?

The two of you can haul butt back to the elevators. The two of you feel lightheaded as you pass the unconscious guard, but neither suffer any serious harm. The neurostun seems to have mostly dissipated, at least enough to permit you a quick escape.

Unfortunately, Copperhead hasn't had a chance to unbreak the elevator. Punching the button, the elevator buzzes that the door is still open, and indeed, it will not close.

I believe St. V has opened an uninstalled escape hatch on the roof.  If they radio me, I can tell them how to un-stick it.

Are both doors on the vehicle closed?

You can't buy a 9S weapon, but apparently you can buy a drone that contains a 9S weapon.  Strato-9 is availability 8 (cutoff for chargen) and comes with an MMG.  Plus cool flashing lights . . .

And I'm very much hoping the guards are aware that something's going on outside.  That means they're not chasing my teammates inside.  I figure if they were gonna call for reinforcements, weird noises outside won't increase the likelihood.  And if I can drop one or two of them outside, that's fewer to worry about when we run to install the packages before vamoosing.


Copperhead descends down to about 200 meters, hovering directly above the disabled vehicle and flips on her lights.  A pre-recorded synthesized voice booms out over the loudspeaker.

"This is Lone Star.  Place your hands behind your head and exit the vehicle.  Failure to comply will be considered a hostile act"

She'd always wondered how perps were supposed to open the door with their hands behind their heads.  One more reason for the star to shoot first and ask questions later.

She keeps a close eye on the vehicle, while sparing an occasional glance toward the complex entrance.

quote:

14:42, Today: Copperhead failed (no successes) using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 6 with rolls of 2,4,4,1,4,2.  Sensor lock on techie.

So unless I'm getting good modifiers, the smoke and heat from the engine fire are making it difficult to get a read on exactly where the techie is in the car.

Copperhead already told them how to unstick it, so they should be good.


They only went down one level, right?  So standing on top of the elevator should have St. V close enough to the ground floor that there shouldn't be a whole lot of climbing involved after that, correct?  Also, I want to note that St. V is more concerned about the decker's equipment than the decker himself.  He will leave the decker behind if the situation becomes too dangerous, but will go to greater lengths to keep the guy's equipment (and the presumed paydata stored within).

St. V begins the ungraceful task of climbing on top of an elevator to get at the sensor Copperhead mentioned so he can unstick the elevator.  However, if it takes him more than a few seconds to locate the sensor, he will try prying the doors open with his bare hands and lugging the bodies up the old-fashioned way.  He reports to Noruas and Copperhead as he works.  "On our way up.  Bringin a couple a lukewarm leftovers with us.  Taste like shadowrunners.  The unconscious kind."  He spares a skeptical glance at the shotgun shaman Toombs had.  "Hopefully."

10:41, Today: St. Velveteen rolled 2 successes using 3d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 5,(6+5)11,2.  Electronics.  Unstick elevator.

Yes, all the doors are closed.

The burning car sits still. The techie doesn't seem willing to get out (or possibly can't).

The second car pulls backwards and drives (backwards) past the burning first one. There is no visible (conscious) driver.


Inside, St. V works the sensor clear. He has to wait a few moments, not sure if it worked, before the door slides shut and the elevator lifts. The elevator is slow (and noisy), rattling up the shaft, but soon it slides open again on the garage floor.

Both the decker and the rigger are slumped over in their seats, totally oblivious to the world immediately around them.

"Score!" Saint Velveteen exclaims as the elevator kicks in.  He climbs back down and rides it up with their "cargo."  In the tiny bit of downtime, he takes a moment to look over the decker and the shaman to see if they are packing any more surprises.  Either hidden weaponry or gifts that St. V might want to help himself to.  Not all gear was cheap or easy to come by, after all.

11:43, Today: St. Velveteen rolled 2 successes using 5d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 4,3,2,2,4.  Perception - finding the goods.

At the top, after claiming his spoils, St. V glances at the two tech-heads with an unsure look on his face.  Then, figuring they were probably hard at work he says, "We'll just put these two in the truck..." and proceeds to do exactly that.

The decker has a knife, a streetline special, a pair of car keys, and a deck. Not much else of interest.

It was time to stop playing with the third team.  She wanted the vehicle, but it wasn't a primary mission objective.  She flipped off her lights and programmed her drone to return to a 1km height and alert her if it saw any movement other than the currently mobile car.  She had a few minutes to do things before she risked losing the second vehicle.  And there was much to do.  Before returning to her body, she took a quick view through the cameras of the waste management van.  If there was something going on around her body, it was best to know before she opened her eyes.

"Oi, tech-wiz! See if dis guy has da files we need on his deck. Don' wanna try breakin' in twice." Toombs barely restrains himself from throwing the confiscated deck at the decker, and instead slides it across the floor. "We been spotted aready, so weapons hot. Just don' go too nuts."

Not long after Copperhead wakes up, Noruas too snaps open his eye lids.  He stretches his limbs and informs the arriving group, I've intercepted and blocked their calls for outside help.  So we should be alright for the next few minutes.

He picks up the decking equipment the other dwarf had passed him, This might take a while.  See if you can try and find the remaining security guards and shut them up.  Its bad enough we have two other competitors in this area; we don't want anyone sending out any signals.

Copperhead can see in the distance the three women you hired fleeing the area. It takes a moment, but Copperhead has an eye for these things... These aren't your women. Your women are on the other side of the facility (also fleeing).

The non-exploded car pulls out into the driveway. One of the lobby guards takes some pot shots at it.


Inside, a klaxon sounds. The locks flash from green to red.

Toombs and St. V have a moment to examine their new friends. The shaman looks like she'll survive. It's hard to tell with the decker. He's taken a beating.

Noruas slides into the deck. It's not bad; there are a few nice programs here. Wonder if he'll want them back. Regardless, after a few moments he comes back with the results--the Silver Angel file. It's encrypted, so there's no telling what it is, but it's definitely there.

To clarify - three women who look like joy-girls fleeing the other side of the facility or are they dressed differently?

"I don tink da boxes is getting planted t'nite.  Or any udder nite.  Time ta get movin."

She wasn't big on wet-work anyhow.  And staying any longer would be pushing their luck a lot further than seemed wise for a rigger who wanted to stay in business a while.

Not waiting for a response, she jumps down into the loading area to remove the debris she'd placed behind the tires

"Pop da door.  I'm gonna take care o da guards an da guy in da burnin car."

She slides into the middle of the front seat, leaving the driver door open and slipped back into her deck.

I'm going to drop the guard(s) with stun rounds, then get into position where I can blow out the front windshield of the burning vehicle  (also with stun rounds) and knock out the techie if he's visible.  I'm also going to drive my (own) van closer to the base of the driveway.  When the remotely driven car gets down there. I'm turning on the jammer.  Let me know what rolls you want me to make, if any.

St. V sticks the decker's gun and knife into a random pocket just so that they wouldn't be on the guy if he miraculously woke up.  After looking at the keys to see if they look like they belonged to any of the cars in the parking lot, he does the same with those.

"Yeah, it's time to move," St. V agrees with Copperhead after getting the bodies squared away in the back of their vehicle.  He pops the door like she asks, then hops into the drivers seat with his silenced and smartlinked Ares Predator ready (but out of sight) and the window down.  "If ya want me ta toss a smoke grenade fer cover, jus let me know."  He makes sure his grenade is easily accessible from his sitting position.

Reading through the module, the runners you now have in custody ALSO hired joygirls.=\ So there's two groups of joygirls hired by runners to distract guards. Thought that was too funny to not slip in at least a mention :P

The guards aren't going to have much impact, so no need to roll for them unless you want to be sure. Same with the techie, really. She's sort of in a pickle and she can't exactly stop you. The electronic warfare is tough though; if you're just flipping on your jammer and let the other rigger take a penalty, that's a free action. But if you're trying to engage in real EW, finding and jamming specific frequencies, you're going to need to engage in several complex actions and an Electronics Roll. So it's your choice how you want to split your attention.

The keys are for a Nissan Runabout. There is one in one of the side lots, if you want to take the time to try them.

A minute passes before Noruas opens his eyes again.  He smiles at the group and says, We got what we came for.  Let's boogey.

I presume I noticed the Runabout when I was doing my earlier scan of "new & different vehicles" in the parking lots?

I'm rolling 17 dice with a base TN 2 against each of the guards, positioning myself to minimize whatever cover they've got.  Anyone who doesn't fall or braces themselves when they fall earns a second burst.  For the techie, I'll position myself so I can actually see her when I shoot her after blowing out the window.

If simply turning on a rating 6 jammer less than 100 m from the target vehicle isn't enough to make the vehicle stop, then that means a level of technical sophistication and back-up that Copperhead doesn't want to deal with at this point in the mission.

St. V (and the others hear a few bursts from the MMG around the corner of the building.  A brief shout is quickly silenced by a second burst.  A few seconds later the windows on the burning car resting against a tree opposite from them shatters and they witness the woman inside slump as she takes several stun rounds to the head.

Copperhead's head pops up again as she turns to the troll.
"Ya wanna yank 'er outta der?  Chicca'll make a better scapegoat if she don get burned up.  Kill'd er partn'r cold blood ta keep 'im from talkin, so null sweat leavin' 'er ta take da heat.

If ya gimme da keys, I ken drive out da udder car."

How far is the car from where we are and/or the path to the driveway out?

St. V climbs back out of the vehicle, tosses Copperhead the decker's keys, then says, "Looks like they belong to Nissan Runabout."  He then jogs over to rescue their scapegoat.  As he pulls her out of the car, he checks her over to see if she has anything that might be able to clue them in to who she is working for.  (wallet, cellphone, recognizable tattoos, anything else easy to grab, etc.)

Also, can I rig the waste disposal truck remotely or am I limited to programming in a destination before I leave?  Can I put it in a "convoy" mode so it'll follow a designated lead vehicle?

Correct. The runabout was there previously.

I forget the name of the mode, but you can use the one where you watch all of your vehicles at once, and keep giving them all commands (captain's chair?) with the garbage truck. But if you jump into one vehicle, it's going to make it very hard to drive the truck as well. Programming in convoy mode works as well. In this case, you're driving AND shooting, so I'm going to assume you're giving basic commands to the garbage truck, then jumping into the drone to mop up. Or you could let Noruas drive.



There's one guard standing outside of the lobby firing. Copperhead aims at him and fires a burst. He drops with a shout. The other one inside is still dialing frantically on the phone. The glass windows of the lobby provide some level of armor, but with enough rounds, you can get through anything; she also drops (behind the desk, so it's difficult to tell how deadish she is).

The techie is a little tougher, but not much. The first blast shatters the windshield. The techie dives down below the console as rounds tear up the  seat behind her. The techie is clearly a bit faster than your average bit-banger, but the cover fire keeps her pinned so St. V can 'creep' up to her, pull the door off its hinges, and apply his fist directly to the forehead until her headache goes away. With that done, he can prop (or steal) the elf, as he likes.

She's pretty well wired. Dermal armor, and her muscles are hard as steel. She's got an armor jacket, a fichetti security 500, a set of throwing knives, an uzi III smargun, and a small electronics kit. No sign of anything obviously incriminating though; quite likely she's experienced enough to strip that sort of stuff off before going on a run.

Copperhead hits the jammer and the westwind, nearly at the gate, rolls to a stop.

Yes, it's captain's chair.  If I jump into a specific vehicle, then I'm relying on the autopilot to follow the instructions I've provided.

The first question is whether the waste disposal vehicle is equipped for wireless control or not.  (It's not unreasonable for it to be - once the vehicle gets to the waste disposal area, they might prefer a central rigger to manage all of the vehicles to minimize human error amongst drivers.  However, it's not guaranteed, so I figured I should ask.)  If it's not wireless, then I can't control it even from captain's chair mode if I'm not jacked in.

The second question is whether the runabout is riggable or wireless.  If not riggable, then I can't even drive it from the captain's chair mode without significant penalties.

The third question is how far out of the way the Runabout is.  The fact the Westwind just stopped has significantly reduced my interest in rescuing the other runners' vehicle.  If Noruas is up to driving it (and wants to), he can.  If not, we'll leave it.  If it's too far out of our way, we'll leave it anyhow.

Fourth question (new one) - are the doors on the driving Westwind closed?  I had understood the driver door at least was open.  Though I suppose the vehicle might be fancy enough that the rigger can close them himself.

So far, I'm assuming the waste truck isn't doing anything - still waiting for Noruas and Toombs to jump in, so I'm jumped into the drone busy shooting at stuff, occasionally pausing to give a command to the camper.

Oh, and the jammer doesn't kick in until the vehicle has cleared the driveway - don't want something blocking our exit :>

Copperhead ensures there isn't much left of the phone on the counter-top, then programs the drone to maintain station and fire gel rounds at anything that moves until she gives orders otherwise.  She then pops briefly out of the waste disposal truck to go through the brain-spattered driver of the burning vehicle, quickly checking for keys or anything useful.  For good measure, she cuts off his thumb.  A lot of the higher-end cars had biometric access these days.  But unless it had been upgraded, a dead thumb would likely be as good as a live one.  She gets back to the vehicle just before the troll has a chance to squeeze in.

"You take da middle.  I'm hoppin out at da bottom o da hill."

Do we have any sense of what security rating this area is?  I.e. how quick is the response time likely to be?

The truck is set up for (very awful) wireless. It would normally take some time to set up, but we can assume you had time somewhere in this adventure to sync up gear.

The runabout at the end of the parking lot. You'd guess someone parked it to avoid the 'prime' spots, but it's still close enough to the road to haul buns over there in a round or two.

One of the westwind's doors is ajar. The inertia of driving was enough to shut it, but it's not clear if it's latched or not.

Security rating here is around A or B. Unfortunate for them, it's set in the middle of a park, so that adds some driving time. But you've definitely made a boom and can expect a response soon.

Ok, so that nixes the Runabout.  If we're likely to have LoneStar inbound, not worth having a non-rigged individual trying to evade them.

Was looking at the New Seattle rules for response times and it seems out to lunch.  The rules state that in a AAA area you can expect a patrol car on site in 12-18 seconds from the incident (and in area B, from 12-63 seconds).  I think rather than "initiative pass" it should really be minutes.  I.e. AAA is aware of the problem immediately, has security rigger on camera and astral mage on site in 1-2 minutes and a drone on site in 2-4 minutes with a patrol car arriving 4-6 minutes after the incident.  That's lightening fast security and semi-realistic given real-world travel constraints.  That means that in our situation, we've got 1-6 minutes before someone calls in the issue and another 1-6 minutes before we've got someone looking at a camera and an astral mage on site.  And another 1-6 minutes before there's a drone, then 1-3 minutes to a patrol car.  It's now been almost a minute since the kaboom, so definitely time to move our hoops.

Copperhead barely gave her teammates a chance to close the doors before the truck is accelerating.  It didn't leave a trace of rubber, but that's only because she'd so carefully accounted for wheel torque and the coefficient of friction of the dry but dusty concrete and asphalt.  The truck careened slightly as she made for the driveway.  She vectored her drone away, headed toward the transfer point the group had used to move the waste disposal employees.  She programmed her camper to start moving in the same direction and set in an alternate route for the disposal vehicle to follow if not given commands to do otherwise.  As a final touch, she added an extra security pass code to all three vehicles in case the goon's rigger decided to get fancy.

"If I can't get da car, I'll meet ya a block over.  Toombs, can ya gimme a watcher ta say if I gots an astral snoop?"  The van would automatically pause on a side street about 300 meters away if she didn't tell it otherwise.

As the vehicle reached the bottom of the driveway (and into areas more likely to have security cameras, the speed slowed to a more natural pace.  She dropped from the passenger door as the truck rounded the corner, maneuvering around the now-stopped Westwind and stuck the severed thumb to the vehicle's sensor before pulling open the door.  She hoped it didn't have one of those new electro-shock anti-theft systems.  That would really ruin her day.

quote:

16:08, Today: Copperhead rolled 4 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 1,(6+3)9,3,(6+2)8,4,4.  Athletics - drop from moving vehicle.

Does anyone have first aid?  It'd be good to check on the mage . . .

Assuming she gets in, she'll close the door, jack in and disable the vehicle's wireless before shoving the driver out of her way and strapping into the driver's seat.

The numbers from New Seattle are based on the old Lone Star book, which in turn seem to assume Lone Star is made up of superheroes. The only pieces of LS I use are the cool car and the Thunderbolt. You can expect that there will frequently be a drone on hand for near-immediate response, but an actual cop car will take about as long as you take a cop car to reach you. In this case, in a park, it'll be a while.

But yes, probably time to move hoops.


It barely takes a minute, but soon drone, truck, and car are down the driveway and on their way to safety.

The van is where you left it. The trash collectors seem very glum. Eve is eager to see that you got it.




At this point, you have made it away. I'll be posting a new thread for the rewards & mop up.

3 karma for everyone, plus cash rewards!!