OPENING SCENE                           CHARACTERS
- Random event, PC negative: kill,       - Logan Di Stefano (M.C)
  expectations:  2 assassins close       - Cameron Moore (contact)
  in on Logan in an industrial zone.     - Ibrahim Koberov (contact)
  They're not corp-assassins, so they    - Black Associates (megacorp)
  must be private hires. They have       - SevenSix (megacorp)
  some cyber. (stats - Gang members,     - Sacramental Union (megacorp)
  p188).

CHAOS FACTOR                           THREADS
     5                                 - Someone wants Logan dead and
                                         Logan does not know who they are.




Logan Stefano, the short-haired, camo-wearing boy, barely out of his 18th birthday, stood on the street corner. He'd heard there were some players in  town and he was hoping to find some contacts to run with - he wanted to get some cash rather urgently.

The industrial zone clashed and battered around him, working hard to terraform the red dust of the martial soil, making the dome thick with soot and blotting the distant sun from the streets below.

And that was when he noted two figures stalking toward him.

Low-level assassins: 5hp, AC-10r/10m, Trauma 6+, Skill +1, Save 15+, Attack +1 universal, Dmg -weapon, Shock 1/15, Move 10m, ML7
Ordinary clothing, Heavy pistol (1d8, trauma d6 x3, 8mag), knife (d4, trauma d6 x3).
Assassin 1 - Trajectory optimization node - turn 1 miss into a hit
Assassin 2 - Muscle fiber replacement - +1 str bonus rating to hit, damage & shock rolls

---

The assassins make their presence known by opening fire! Assassin 1 drops to the floor, shooting from prone.
13 to hit - missed attack
The other assassin walks forward, trying to put more rounds into their target,
12 to hit - missed attack.

Logan watched the bullets flying past him almost obliviously, then realised he was being under attack. His army training kicked in, and he ducked back around a power transformer, pulled out his pistol and took a bead on one of the shooters, fired.

The assassin's brains sprayed out behind him, a 9mm bullet leaving a fist-sized hole in the back of his head. He still takes a couple of steps forward and then crumples in a heap.

Won initiative
16 to hit, trama die roll 8, damage 6x2 = 12

---

Seeing his partner's life snuffed out from the shootout, the surviving assassin stood and ran!

---

After a moment of looking around for further assailants, Logan walked up to the corpse and kicked it. "Bastard," he mumbled. "What the fuck..." he grumbled. It wasn't the first shootout he'd been in, but it was usually he who provoked them.

Logan bent down and raked through the assassin's pockets, looking for some information. In one pocket was a simple photograph of Logan. Other than that, there was little else to determine who the would-be killer would be.

Logan scratches his head, looking around. "Who the fuck wants me dead?" The idea that he was being targeted hadn't quite sunk in. He tugged the mask down on his assailant and snapped an image of the man's face. "Maybe Koberov has some idea who this is..."

Making tracks before the Black-Domes come (the law-enforcement officers of Mars wore all black, with black bone-domes to make them all anonymous), Logan headed towards the tubeways to the Old City.

He intents to go and see Koborov to ask him for his help.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:39, Tue 19 Mar.

Moving quickly away from the scene of the gunfight, Logan heard the distant wail of sirens. Cursing himself for not picking up the gun from the jerk who tried to kill him, and aware that he was being hunted, he moved into the warren of the Underway - the tube-trains that connected all of Nyx.

And then his cellphone rang.  Logan checked the caller id. C A M, it said.
"Wassup, Choomba?" Logan said, in his best martian patois, as he answered the phone.
"Logan? Is that you, my dear chap? Are you okay?" The voice came down the line with a crackle, but the fake English accent told Logan all he needed to know. It really was Cameron, a contact he had recently made.
"Awww. You care so much. Want my input?" he grinned.
"Disgusting as ever, my friend. Listen, are you out in public?"
"Why, man?"
"Listen," he said down the line conspiratorially. "I had a couple of rather abrasive types enter the store and I had to invite them to stay a while in the basement. You might have some people looking to -"
"Yeah, they tried," he cut off the long-winded pawnshop owner.
"Someone is targeting us - and word is, its someone in Sac U."
Sac U - Sacramental Union. One of Nyx's largest megacorps. Why one earth would they be interested in the death of a low-level solo and a pawn-broker? Logan didn't know...
"Listen, choomba. Get out of sight till I can sort this out, you click?"
"Aye, my fellow, I understand."

Was Cameron under duress? Extreme NO

Logan hung up the call and entered the Underway tube-tunnels. He was going to see Ibrahim. Unannounced. And he was going to make sure he wasn't followed.

Scene 3:

Ibrahim's building complex was situated in The Estates. An anti-drone system sat rusting over the front door - an old solid-slug AI-aimed thing that had been placed on passive mode. The walls in the foyer were stained with damp. Brushed steel features showed signs of water damage. The hallways were cluttered with scavenged furnishings and furniture littering the hall from (Logan counted) nine previous aesthetics. The smell of paint thinner filled the corridor from the painted walls of the stairwell. The lifts were out of order - they were always out of order. Painting bots hummed as they freshened the paint higher up in the stairwell.

Logan found himself a place to stand in the stairwell where the light did not illuminate him overwell, and waited for Ibrahim to come home.

Does Ibrahim come home as planned? v. likely. 49 - YES

As Logan expected, he heard Ibrahim's footsteps on the stairs an hour or so later, heading home after a long shift in his role as Corp security for SevenSix Incorporated. The man was distinctive, with an electoo of florescent pink tribal designs all along his jawline and neon-blue teeth. These sorts of high-end fashion cosmetic mods were all the rage with SevenSix personelle. The more outrageous the better. Logan didn't really see the appeal.

"Don't shoot, choomba," he said, stepping out of the shadow as Ibrahim approached. The security guard's hand was already going for a concealed gun at his hip. He paused.
"Drok, you nullhead. I could have dropped you!" Ibrahim shook his head and then looked behind him. "Something up?" Clearly, his apartment building was the last place the Corpo Security was expecting a wanna-be solo to turn up.
"Yeah. Need your help Choomba. I can't pay neither. But you know I pay my debts."
"Yeah? I heard you like to pay them with lead."
"It is one way to pay, but you're the only guy I can turn to. I need your help. I'll owe you. Big time."

Is Ibrahim convinced? Skill check? Cha + Talk = -2: rolled 11, so 9 total.
Likely Ibrahim is convinced. Extreme NO!

Ibrahim nodded. "Sure Choomba. After you."  He gestured ahead. Logan moved in front of him and started walking down the hall. He heard the pistol being cocked behind him, diving into the cover of a doorway quickly as the first round fired off. He wasn't quick enough, and the round took the solo in the hip, sending him crashing to the ground.

Ibrahim kicked Logan over onto his back, gun pointed at his face. "You came to my home. Unannounced. You dumb shit. Don't you think? What if I'm pinged with a fecking drekker like you?
He took out a large orange patch with 67 in big, bold lettering, slapping it on Logan's chest. "Corp Sec will be here in 15. You had better have left by then." he said, stepping over Logan and heading on down the corridor.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:14, Tue 19 Mar.

Logan groaned. The pinning of his phone brought him around. The cocktail of drugs was making him feel sick. The hole in his him was less painful, but standing up was a motherfucker. He staggered along the corridor, testing doors to see if any opened, rereading the message to see if he could focus.

He came to an apartment where the door was missing - and the unit was a shell. Picking himself up the last few meters, he staggered to the bathtub in one room and collapsed into it.  One hand fumbled on his phone, texting Cameron for assistance, the other sliding his pistol out of his holster and aiming it at the door, waiting for the first corpo to burst through so he could put a bullet in him...

Scene 5

Logan waited. And waited. And heard someone in the apartment. He listened and decided they weren't a Corp Sec squad.
"In here..." he grunted, lowering his handgun. The door creaked open trepidatiously.
"Cameron? Choomba?"
The door opened wider and framed in the doorway was a child - perhaps 12 years old. She had an auburn mohawk and sharp red eyes. She wore a gunmetal biker jacket.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?" Logan answered back.
"Ulla," she said cautiously. "Are you shot?" she asked, looking at the blood on the tiles of the bathroom.
"A bit," Logan answered. "I could do with some help. I need to get out of here without ending up with more holes in me."
The girl nodded. "I know a way..."
"Help me up then," he said, smiling.
"What's in it for me?"
"Er... How about um..." he thought about it. "What about a job? Want a job? I can get you a job."

Does she want a job? (unlikely) 97 - Hard no

"Fuck no. I want to be a shadowrunner."
Logan blinked. This 12-year-old wanted to work in corporate espionage? He was about to dismiss her out of hand when he remembered his own tweens. He'd wanted to be one of the Sigma-Force, a national-sponsored army used in defence of the city-state. And he had wanted that forever.
"That is a big ask... But maybe I know something about that. What do you know already? You a hacker or ...gnnnn" he winced. The painkillers were wearing off.
" I'm good at sneaking around." She paused and looked behind her. " Listen, Mister, if I get you out of here, you take me on a Run sometime. Like, and I get to hold a gun."
Logan nodded some as he tried to ignore the pain burning in his hip. Get me out of this building in one piece and I'll take you on a Run sometime. But no guns. You're a kid and I don't want to be the one to put a Saturday-night special in your hands."

Does she go for this? (near sure thing) 92 - Yes, just.

"Fine. Okay. I guess. Come on..."

It took Logan a minute or two to get out of the bathtub and stumble after the girl. Ulla.  She led the way towards...

Does she head to the lifts?

...the lifts.
"They're out of order," Logan grumbled.
"Yeah maybe. But I can make it work."  She pauses outside the lift and begins jacking a hand-held device into a socket at the bottom of the buttons that summoned the metal cages.

And SixSeven Inc Corp Sec finally arrived in the corridor. Three men in black kevlar, bright neon hairstyles. Carrying submachine guns.

"Shit shit shit. Come on Choomba, get the lift."
"It's coming. Keep your panties on."

"Hold it there!"

"Get out of here, kid... they're going to kill us both."
"Shhhh.."

Logan cursed, span, and fired his gun down the corridor, trying to drive the security personnel back.

Fires gun. 21 to hit. Wings the lead gunman!

BING! the door opened, and Ulla dove in. "Come on, Choom!"

Diving from behind the merge cover, submachineguns blazing his way, somehow Logan managed to land in the lift without any more holes in him.

Ping!

The doors closed and the lift began to lower.

"You're not very popular, are you?"

Scene Six: Altered Scene

Logan's trauma patch was fading and the pain was making him wince as he limped towards 'Agreeable', the location that Cameron had sent him in a text not a few hours ago. Ulla wandered behind him, asking annoying questions and seemingly taking mental notes of his every answer.

"Are they going to attack the brothel we're heading to?" she asked.

Logan blinked, glanced around, and spotted several bodies exiting a hover-van and cocking hand guns as they approached the building.
"Shit. Shit. Shit."  Logan picked out his phone and failed Cameron. "Pick up, you old tit..." he growled.  There wasn't an immediate answer so he handed it to Ulla. "Tell him he has company when he answers..." he said, reloading his handgun and taking a deep breath...


This message was last edited by the GM at 20:54, Wed 20 Mar.

The assassins moved up - two heading for some back door or other, while the rest ran up to the bouncers at the door and shot them with silenced weapons. Somehow, only one of them found their mark, painting the brothel's doors with blood, brains and fragments of skull.  The other bouncer yanked out his own handgun and put a round in the heart of the assassin in front of him, sending him (or her) face down in the concrete.

Logan could see though, that the bouncer was outgunned. He pushed Ulla further away from the gunfight and sprinted to some cover, crouching from behind a street bike and snapping off a shot at the assassins... and missing.

Moving quickly, the remaining bouncer, finally grasping his friend's demise, pointed his handgun out Johny Woo style and hit the black-clad bastard in front of him, but only whinged him. The assassin returned fire - and missed. Another assassin ran towards Logan, firing as he went, hitting the street bike and putting a fist-sized hole through the farings. Logan took aim, carefully, and fired.

And missed.
"Fuck..." he growled.

Drawing his collapsible broadsword, Logan aced forward and ran through the shooting assassin who was aimed at him, watching the life drain from his eyes.

The pain in his leg wasn't quite as bad now.

The bouncer backed through the main door, firing at the assassin before him but missing. He was hit by return fire.
The sound of screaming came from inside the brothel...

"Fuck..." snarled Logan.

Pushing his silenced handgun into the strip-club, the assassin shot and killed the bouncer, putting a round through his throat and stepping over the body.

Snarling, Logan limp-ran through the door after him, stumbling over the body of the bouncer and hacking his blade into the skull of the assassin as it stalked forward, pointing its gun at all the punters in the building. The assassin dropped - and screams filled the room. A roaring came from somewhere in the back of the club.

 Logan raced towards the sound of an altercation and pushed open a door that had a sign that read 'taff only'. Inside, he found one bouncer, lithe and covered in military tattoos sinking a kabar into a slumping body of a black-wrapped individual. Another one's clothes were held tight in his other fist, using this little control to avoid the bastard's silenced pistol. Logan's arrival sent the assassin into a panic and it yanked himself free, fleeing the way he came. Logan gave chase, out into an alley behind the club and swinging his sword and taking the bastard's head off.

Behind him, the door locked.

Five minutes later, though, he was sat in the office with Cameron and an older, pretty woman who introduced herself as 'Olena.'
"I take it you weren't expecting trouble?"
She smiled at his question. "I always expect trouble, but not from Corp-sponsored murderers. I take it you're the Solo that dear Mr Moore told me of?"
One of the dancers was disinfecting the wound in Logan's hip and the pain was making him hiss. "I am."
"He is. Very skilled. Tell him what you told me."

What did the Madam tell Cameron about this mystery?

"Well. I recently bought a very nice deck from Mr Moore. I use it to keep my books, both of them. But the other day, I was idily making sure that everything was in order when I discovered a hidden partition. And inside, some very powerful ICE. It isn't connected to the NET but... well, I could tell it wasn't manufactured that way. I called Mr Moore to ask the providence of the deck."  She looked to Cameron to continue the story.

"Well, that is hard. I didn't buy it from what you might call a reputable source."

"He means it is stolen. However, I do know someone who might be able to connect us to a Hacker who can break the ICE. I can partially fund, too... If it gets these goons from killing my bouncers. Cord - my rather wonderful chief bouncer - can't be defending the whole establishment himself, after all."

"I am broke, lady..." Logan said.

"I'm not. I'll match the cost." smiled Cameron.

Episode one Recap

Scene One
Random starting point: PC Negative, Kill, Expectations
Two assassins close in on Logan and open fire. At the time, he was simply standing in an industrial district looking for work as a Solo.

In the fight, Logan put a round through the first assassin's skull and the other ran off. He took a photograph of the dead man in the hope that one of his contacts could help him identify them.

Scene Two
Interupt scene, move towards a thread - Lie, spiritual
Cameron Moore phoned Logan to warn him that there were people after them. He thinks they might be from Sacramental Union, a Magacorp, but is that the truth?

Cameron suggests it is Sacramental Union and firmly believes what he says. He has two assassins in the basement of his pawn shop that he had to kill... Logan heads to see Ibrahim urgently.

Scene Three
Logan meets up with Ibrahim in their building, seeking his help.

Ibrahim, scared of being seen with a Solo, shot Logan when his back was turned and slapped a trauma patch on him before running off to phone the Corp Sec (Corporate Security), giving him only 15 mins to escape.

Scene Four
Altered Scene
Logan crawls into a disused unit in the Hab Block and calls Cameron for help. Cameron does text a clue in: the Strip Club 'Agreeable' in the Warrens, and the madam, Olena Vio, - something to help them move their investigation on here.

But it isn't Cameron's agent who comes to help him but a 12-year-old girl who wants to be a Shadowrunner. She helps him in return for 'training'. Her name is Ulla.

Scene Five
Altered Scene
Logan and Ulla head to the club 'Agreeable'.  As they do, they see a bunch of assassins running in from a van.

A firefight ensues, and Logan manages to slay 80% of the assassins, saving Olena Vio and Cameron Moore in one go. He discovers that Vio bought a 'Deck' (Computer) from Moore and it had a secret partition with some high-level ICE (defensive measures) installed. They need to make contact with a Fixer to obtain a good Hacker to break the ICE and uncover the truth inside the Deck.

Note: This seems a good place to pause the game. Logan should level up here, I think, before moving on to meet the Fixer. It seems narratively appropriate.

Characters

• Cameron Moore - Contact, the pawnshop owner
• Ibrahim Koberov - Contact, Corp Sec
• Black Associates - Megacorp
• SevenSix Incorporated - Megacorp.
• Sacramental Union - Megacorp.
• Ulla, 12-year-old Shadowrunner-wannabe. Good with computers.
• Cordellia Granger - Top Bouncer of Agreeable
• Orlena Vio - Owner of Agreeable.

Threads

• Someone wants Logan, Cameron and Olena dead. Cameron believes it is a rogue element of SevenSix Inc. He is wrong, surely.
• Ibrahim Koberov shot Logan in the back. He didn't let him die, but it is still an insult that needs to be avenged.
• Ulla is following Logan around - but she can't do that forever, can she?

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:54, Fri 22 Mar.