The van's on autopilot - rating 3.  It'll slow to a speed it deems safe for its capabilities and the road conditions.  It may take an extra turn to arrive, but that's ok.  Copperhead is fully jumped into her drone.  Once she's fired, she'll probably trade with Noruas.  He can use suppressive fire on either side of the vehicle to keep them pinned and Copperhead can speed up the van and stop it where she needs to.  She might wait to see what they do in the immediate aftermath of the attack though.  Cleo's probably got a pretty high initiative, so if she makes a break for it, I'll hit her first.

I'm going to hold of posting the attack to give Caduceus a chance to summon his mountain spirit if he wishes

20:50, Today: Caduceus rolled 1 success using 4d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 2,1,(6+6+5)17,2.  Conjure Force 2 Mountain Spirit.
20:51, Today: Caduceus rolled 6 successes using 8d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 4,5,3,4,3,4,5,5.  Drain Test.
20:51, Today: Caduceus rolled 2 successes using 4d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 4,1,4,2.  Conjure Force 2 Mountain Spirit (again).
20:51, Today: Caduceus rolled 5 successes using 8d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 5,2,(6+5)11,1,5,5,(6+4)10,3.  Drain Test.

After catching his breath, Caduceus dug deep and reached out to the mountain spirit's for some help as well.  He would feel naked knowingly going into combat without some spiritual guidance.  "We are going to stop the car in front of us from moving," he told the spirit.  "Make sure that vehicle is guarded so that its occupants come out of the crash ok."  He then dug even deeper and requested additional services from the spirits of the mountains.

"I think I'll go out and observe the scene from astral space.  See what I can do with my spirit friends from there.  Please keep my meat safe while I am out." Caduceus began his trancing and would opt to fly over to the crash site as soon as he knew shots were fired.

Copperhead noticed the mage slump in his seat as the Westwind approached the corner into her straightaway.  Go time.  She jumped fully into her drone.

It felt a bit odd to feel the coolness of the mist swirling around her rather than the wind rushing against her face, but this was one time when being stationary was necessary.  She watched the ball of heat tear around the far corner and slowly resolve as it came closer.  She centered the cross-hairs of the smartlink on the front right tire, tracking it as the vehicle veered slightly out of control, then compensated.  The loss of the right tire would spin her target counter-clockwise across the oncoming lane and into the wall of the cliff rather than off the road and down the hill towards the trees below.  So long as there wasn't another rich millionaire speeding the opposite direction this time of night, that would probably be the safest location for her quary - and it was certainly the easiest for her to manage.


"Noruas, get ready ta, flick da jammer"

Her breathing slowed, even though with the jack neither her heartrate nor breathing had any impact on her accuracy.  Some habbits were worth retaining.  She monitored the sports car as it slowed, Pengrave perhaps deciding that a bit more control coming out of the corner would be a good idea.  He was hitting the brakes too hard for the Westwind's small battery to consume all of the needed power and the brakes lit up as the shoes engaged.  She waited for the targeting rectical to turn green, indicating optimum range then twitched a mental muscle.

"JAM!"

The night erupted with sound as her LMG splashed bucked with full auto then getting louder as the explosive rounds detonated.  The metal cut through the tire easily, then ripped chunks out of the rim shattering it and ropping the silver vehicle onto its bare axle triggering an unavoidable spin.  The noise echoed off the mountain into the night, quickly dampened by the fog.  The flame from her unprotected barrel lit up the rock and surrounding mist, making her hiding place obvious, but too late for the driver or his passenger to do much about it.

The auto-pilot would be doing its best to minimize injury to occupants.  With luck the sedan would slam into the cliff and trigger the airbags.  That'd slow Cleo down a bit.  The former samurai would undoutedly be the first to move.

Copperhead flexed her feet and the drone's vectored thrust kicked in, rocketing her skyward as she tilted to position herself with a good view of the road from both directions and clear line of sight to the road on either side of the vehicles doors as it ground to a stop.  She toggled her weapon to gel rounds and prepared to fire, focusing most of her attention on the passenger door.

quote:

21:27, Today: Copperhead rolled 11 using 12d6 with the Shadowrun, Open Test with rolls of 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 6+5, 4, 2, 4, 6+3, 3, 1.  Manuever score.

(I used 6 dice from my control pool.)  I'm going to assume he drops to just below 60m/ct (about 45mph) in order to make the combat turn.  That means his maneuver score will be 3 (sports car) + 5 (speed/10 rounded down) + driving open test.  Mine is 10 (ultralight) + 0 + 11 = 21.  (I'm not bothering to factor in the tight terrain because that affects us both equally.)  Seeing as it's unlikely he can't hit 3 or more on his open test, and it's really unlikely he'll get 24, there shouldn't be any bonuses or penalties from the open test to my shot.

Short range (base TN 4); smartlink: -2; aim * 3: -3; relative motion - toward each other: -1; relative speeds (assuming between 22 and 45 mph as he gets to the corner): +2; Shooting an automobile -1; Called shot + 4.  Final TN=3.  (4 if he's suicidal and tries to take the corner above 45mph)
Gunnery 6, control pool 6, 9 rounds of full auto (to avoid recoil) = 20 dice

quote:

21:34, Today: Copperhead rolled 13 successes using 20d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 5,3,1,4,1,2,4,(6+1)7,(6+4)10,(6+4)10,4,2,5,5,1,5,1,(6+6+1)13,3,2.  Shoot the tire.

13 successes.  (10 if he's going 45-67 mph instead).
Base damage = 9S, becoming 4M for hitting a vehicle.  So after staging, that'll do either 8D or 7D, less whatever vehicular armor his tires have (base Westwind has none).  I'm assuming he can't dodge due to surprise.  Vehicle rolls its body of 3 to resist.

In the unlikely event Pengrave is jacked in, he may need to resist physical damage with willpower.  A full rigger would need to resist 6M if the vehicle takes Serious or 6S if it takes Deadly.  Not sure what the targets would be for merely being jacked in.

Then it needs to make a crash test (not really relevant for the vehicle, but will be relevant for the occupants).  TN is 3 + 3 for serious damage or 4 for deadly + 4 for tight terrain, so 10 or 11.  He gets to roll 6 (autonav * 2) + driving skill.  If he fails, the vehicle crashes.  Vehicle needs to resist 6M (if he was 45mph or less or (speed/10)S if he was going faster.  Passengers need to resist the same power, and whatever damage level the vehicle actually took.  They can't dodge and can use impact armor.

quote:

22:06, Today: Copperhead rolled 27 using 4d6+12 with rolls of 4,3,6,2.  Initiative.

quote:

22:10, Today: Copperhead rolled 10 successes using 12d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 2 with rolls of 4,4,2,(6+5)11,2,2,5,(6+3)9,5,1,4,1.  Accelerating.

That'll get me moving to 90m/ct and position me 45 meters up by the end of my ct

Hopefully Noruas was holding action, so the jammer was active almost as soon as the shots were fired.

My only previous action was to slow the van down.

Upon hearing the command, Noruas flipped a mental switch to turn on the van's jammers.

Do I need to make a roll for this?

Upon 'hearing' Copperhead's gunfire, Noruas took that as a cue to begin aiming the van's weapon system at the Westwind.  He made sure to load in some concussion grenades into the grenade launcher before taking aim.  He takes a moment to take aim at the damaged vehicle, ready to let loose a barrage of grenades should the order be given.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:52, Fri 23 Dec 2016.

It'll take you 2 combat turns before you've got line-of-sight on the van - we couldn't follow super close or we'd have been seen.  Once the van has line-of-sight, there may be more specific targets so I'd hold off making detailed plans until you know what they're up to.  You may not need to shoot at all.  If White Duck can talk them into surrender, that'd be less noisy and avoid us having to wake them up from stun before we can ask questions.

In terms of non-lethal, you've got offensive, defensive, IR smoke and concussion in the grenade launcher.  I think the smoke would help them more than us - they're not attacking, they're trying to get away.  You've also got EX and Gel rounds in a pair of rifles.  If the vehicle is armored (as would be reasonable for an executive), you'll have to blow out the windshield before you can put a grenade in.  As well, I'd encourage you to spend a couple of turns aiming before you launch the grenades to make sure they actually go inside the vehicle unless someone's already opened a door.

Wow, Pengrave actually got a 23 on his open test for maneuver score. Hopefully that's the last high roll he gets ;) However, that doesn't meet the 10+ threshold to change those TNs. BTW, thank you for the full explanation of everything :) Every time I do vehicle stuff, I go back through again and spend 15 minutes just relearning everything.

The Westwind's wheel explodes in rubber and shrapnel. The other wheels kick on automatically, adjusting for the abrupt loss of braking torque. The car fishtails down the road, the automated accident transponder drowned out by Noruas's jammer. The car sideswipes the side of the cliff, removing the front fender and crushing the passenger door inwards before it bounces back into the road and towards the cliff. The car turns back into the road, still screaming, leaving a trail of sparks. A second tire bursts and the car goes skidding forwards and off the end of the curve into the underbrush.

The car is quiet for a moment, then the driver's side door kicks open and Pengrave stumbles out, his suit torn and stained with blood. He struggles around the back of the car, just as the RV comes around the bend on the far side of the road.

Hadn't thought of loss of braking torque, but you're right that the front end dragging probably produces less friction than tires with shoes applied.

The loudspeaker on the Strato-9 boomed out.

"ON THE GROUND.  NOW.  FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL BE CONSIDERED A HOSTILE ACT"

For good measure, she toggled on the red and blues as she held action, watching for Cleo.  She'd leave Pengrave for Noruas to deal with if the executive decided to misbehave.  The drone slowed it's assent and held station about 70 meters above the damaged car as she tried to figure out the status of the second vehicle occupant.

quote:

14:13, Today: Copperhead rolled 1 success using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 1,3,1,2,4,2.  Active scan - watching for Cleo.

(Actually, that should have been 5 dice, not 6)

quote:

14:14, Today: Copperhead rolled 4 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of (6+1)7,1,(6+3)9,4,2,5.  Passive scan - watching for Cleo.

As soon as the action started, Caduceus flew his astral body out to the crash site to keep tabs on the situation.  He had never witnessed a car crash from the astral plane before, and it was certainly a sight to behold.  When Pengrave got out, Caduceus took the opportunity to peek inside the car to check on Cleo's status.  It would be good to know if she was waiting, scheming, or about to die.  He just hoped Pengrave himself wasn't going to the trunk to surprise them with a bazooka or something.

Pengrave looks back and forth, at the car and the drone. He then launches himself towards the edge of the road and tumbles into the underbrush.

if anyone wants to take potshots at him, you can.

Caduceus can tell Cleo is still dazed inside the car, but in good physical condition, wrapped up by a friendly spirit. She is quickly regaining her senses though.

Duck pops open the door to the van, fastening his mempo to his face, then tossing his coat over his shoulder and striding up to the Westwind's crash site casually. His colors change and shift slightly under each street light, up until he makes it to the vehicle. He moves through the brush quietly, ignoring Pengrave for the moment and going for the car. His albinism, his eyes glinting pink like some cornered, feral predator from the ambient glow of the city. He'd certainly moved quickly enough- keeping a decent enough pace to put himself at the busted-up passenger side door in seconds.

"Damned nice car. Shame about the accident..." he says, inhaling a plume of fakesmoke from an internally-built vape pen in the mempo. When he exhales, the vapor billows out from the nostrils in thick plumes that make him appear like some well-dressed yet pissed off Chinese river dragon.

"Pardon me Valerie, I'm afraid that chip you slotted is having some side effects you can't seem to fight off. I've been hired to retrieve this chip, and as it just so happens, I'm going to have to remove it forcibly. You have my sincerest apologies, as a handsome guy such as myself is accustomed to *really* consensual touching, but alas." Relieved to be done with the airs and social graces of the corporate party, Duck deftly darts his digits down through the broken window and moves to swiftly swipe the chip.

Howdy guys, sorry for my long absence but things have been hectic at work. Looks like I came back just in time! I hope you all had a great holiday. BTW.

Aside from that, I'll roll unarmed if it's necessary at this point, but I'm trying to get to Cleo before she fully comes to.

As Copperhead was essentially holding action, is she able to fire before he hits the brush?

So who's going after Pengrave?  And this is probably not a good time to be firing concussion grenades at the escaping Pengrave, right?

That depends on the timing of things.  If White Duck has had the time to get to the vehicle before Pengrave decided to bolt, he probably wouldn't appreciate a nearby stun grenade - so I should take the shot.  On the other hand, if Pengrave ran before White Duck got close, probably best for you to fire the grenade and I wait for our primary target to make her move (seeing as we don't have intel relayed from Caduceus yet).  PB - what's the timing of actions?

Caduceus smiled at the spirit wrapped around Cleo, glad that it had done its job well.  But when he noticed Cleo was beginning to stir, he didn't hesitate to request a service of his second mountain spirit.  "Slow down her Movement and the the guy outside too, while you're at it.  We can't have them escaping on us, or else this entire plan will have been a waste."

He then flew off to go report their status to the camper-crew.  Manifesting, he said, "Cleo is dazed, but healthy, and recovering fast.  I have my spirit friend slowing the two of them down."

I imagine this would take Caduceus a couple actions, but I think it fits in with what other people are doing too.

Both jacked in techies can take the shot. Copperhead has initiative. They will get their actions in before White Duck arrives at the car, since he needs a little time for his saunter ;)

Take da shot.  I've got da primary

To fire, you need to do the following:
1. You're stopped, so determining a maneuver score doesn't make much sense - we'll just do straight gunnery against your target
2. Technically you're not trying to hit Pengrave per se, just the spot he's in, so you could argue you're targetting something bigger than a human, but don't know Papa would buy that.
3. I don't know how close to the wreck you parked.  If it's < 50 meters, your base TN is 4, if its > 50 meters, your base TN is 5
4. The weapon has a smart-link (so -2 if you have a smartlink adapter)
5.  You have gunnery of 3.  If you have a reaction of at least 3, you can throw total of 6 dice into your attack against whatever the final TN is
6. Roll 3d6 to see how far it scatters.  Reduce by 4 x number of successes on your attack roll
7. Roll 1d6 to see what direction the grenade will scatter in

Damage is 12M stun, reduced by impact armor and resisted by Body and combat pool, staged up by your successes.

Good luck . . .

3) I'm not sure how far I parked in relation to them, since we never specified.
4) I have a smart link so the TN should be 2 or 3 depending on where I'm parked, right?
5) How does one determine reaction?  Is it the initiative?

You had control of the vehicle, so it's sort of up to you, though Papa has the right to override.  And yes, that'll make your TN either 2 or 3.  Reaction should be listed on your character sheet.  It's the average of (Quickness + Intelligence)/2 rounded down.  It can be altered by other things, though those changes probably wouldn't come into play here.

Thanks. Then let's say I parked at a little more than 50 meters.

The dwarf felt for the general location of Pengrave before mentally pulling the trigger with the grenade launcher.

Today: Noruas rolled 2 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 ((2,2,1,1,4,4)). 'Nading the heck out of Pengrave.

Today: Noruas rolled 2 successes using 3d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of (6+3)9,1,(6+1)7.  How far the grenade scatters.

Today: Noruas rolled 1 success using 1d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 5.  Direction the grenade will scatter in.

<orange>The 3d6 actually needed to use the default system rather than shadowrun (no re-rolling of 6s and add the result).  So what you actually rolled was 6 + 1 + 6 = 13 in terms of scatter distance.  You reduce that by 4m x 2 successes, so 5m off.  Pengrave will need to resist 7S instead of 12M stun stun based on the difference in distance and your staging it up.  He'll resist using his body + combat pool and the TN will be reduced by his impact armor.  The grenade landed between 4 and 5 o'clock from where you were targeting it, so probably still at least the 12 meters or so away from WD.  Odds are he'll be able to counter one of your successes and avoid serious stun.  If he keeps running, I'll try to drop him if you and White Duck feel like you can cover Cleo.<orange>

Noruas lines up the shot and fires. The grenade skitters under the car and detonates with a *WHOOMF*, blasting out two more windows. Pengrave skitters towards the edge of the road but loses his footing from the blast and collapses into the underbrush. His heat signature still comes up distinctly on the cameras. He's there, apparently immobile, and thoroughly tangled.

Caduceus's spirit hurries off to... slow their movement apparently? Little spirit is a bit confused as to this one, as neither seems to be moving much at all.

Duck approaches the car, keeping his calm stride as he walks /towards/ the explosion. Cleo/Valerie, for her part doesn't seem to have the fight in her that she used to. She's sprawled out in the passenger seat, her torn dress hidden under the deflated airbags. Her face and neck are covered with cuts from her jewelry and bits of glass. She barely manages a groan as Duck grasps the chip, plugged into the nape of her neck. With a half-twist, the chip unlocks and glides free from its socket.

Watching Valerie, she doesn't seem to suffer any visible medical issues. Nor does she look like she's bleeding anywhere, although concussions and even fractures are likely. She'll live if you want to leave her for DocWagon.

Once she was comfortable that Cleo/Val was covered, Copperhead slipped back into command mode and edged the van up to the crashed vehicle - and into a position where at least one of her rifles could get a bead on Pengrave's condition.

Her voice came over the comm
"Best ta get 'em loaded ta chat elsewhere.  Dunno when da nex car's commin, but best ta not be 'ere."

As soon as the pair is in restraints, she eases her form out of the RV's cabin and makes her way to Pengrave's vehicle, pops the hood and plays for a minute before slamming it shut and returning to the van.

"Ready ta go?"

quote:

08:29, Today: Copperhead rolled 5 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of (6+5)11,(6+1)7,1,(6+6+1)13,(6+2)8,4.  Disable emergency beacon.

Presumably that should do it :>

Both sacks of potatoes are easy to strap down. And the emergency beacons, while not made for servicing, can be removed with only a little abuse.

After 'abusing' the emergency beacons, Noruas quickly straps himself back into his seat.

Let's go.

Just as she was about to pull out, Copperhead had a quick mental flash.  She popped out of her vehicle and went to retrieve the tracking device.  It was too fragging expensive to lose, plus it might have attracted undesired attention.  For good measure, she popped the trunk and the glove compartment, looking for anything of value.  May as well confuse whatever LoneStar detective got assigned as to the motive.  Plus a bit of extra Nuyen wasn't ever a bad thing.

That done, the rigger slipped back into her seat and pulled an easy u-turn and drove the team and their "guests" back towards civilization.  She did her best to keep the ride easy and relaxing for everyone, particularly Caduceus.  Any interrogation was going to be a lot easier if the mage was in good form and their targets were at least conscious.

Back-tracking was always easy for her and she had her drone to scout ahead and help avoid any potential trouble spots.  She flicked the jammer off once they were about 5 minutes away from the scene of the accident, trusting to the RV's passenger-compartment faraday cage to contain the broadcasts of any doc-wagon bracelets, phones or other signalling devices.

This time, she left the internal video displays off.  No point letting their guests know where they were going, though she did respond to any questions over the comm.  Her stomach rumbling, she made an executive decision to hit a local Soy-Mart, grabbing sandwiches and coffees - a double expresso for herself.

The parking lot of an abandoned mall about 15 minutes futher seemed as good a stopping point as any.  It had good sightlines and a few potential exits.  She perched her drone atop the highest nearby lamp-post, then briefly flicked on the jammer as she pushed the food back before resealing the cage and turning off the electronic noise.

She kicked back in armchair mode, watching the feeds from both inside the van and out.  For good measure, she adjusted the van's radio to pick up the local 24-hour news feed as well to see what sort of attention the team had brought upon itself.  She slurped absently at the relatively well-insulated coffee and enjoyed the sensation of physical relaxation combined with the energizing effect of the caffeine beginning to seep again through her veins.  Her visual and auditory cortexes flicked effortlessy through the multiple feeds.  This already long night was only going to get longer.