You have taken the bridge of the freighter Amber Dawn. The marine fire team is KIA and the rigger/decker crew has been sent to Davie Jones in a blaze of .50 cal. fire by Cotter, your boat rigger. Heavy rain is reducing visibility and drenching the decks. The seas are rough, moving even the 30,000 ton freighter hull unpleasantly. The 100 mile ride out here in Cotter’s little boat was … suboptimal. Good thing Cotter had all those motion sickness pills, Or you would’ve been spraying those Marines with your lunch instead of lead and grenades.

Perses’s TacCom sends out a notification: according to the download, you are supposed to head back to Tacoma and the ship shed after running due south for another 15 minutes.

It also pings a warning: another vessel is approaching at high-speed, it looks like an old tramp steamer, the kind that have been plying third world trade routes for almost 2 centuries. But this one is packed to the gunwale’s with rain sodden orks, armed to the tusks. And it appears to have multiple weapon mounts including at least one light cannon mounted forward. The Tower’s camera can barely make out a flag snapping in the wind. Two red…eyes?faces?skulls? Over a metal mouth? No.. that’s a sword, curved like a smile.

Kalix, one of Lughaidh’s bound spirits, manifests before Perses. “The master says they are right on time. You will need to run before them for a little bit then let them board you, and squawk a distress call that you have been boarded by Pirates-heading due south. Then clean your decks and head back to the barn. Got it? Good.” The little smoking imp disappears back into the aether.

Back at the Tower in Redmond, “Well, apprentice? Have you had enough nicotine? How is the catalogue coming? Kalix tells me that your compatriot, Perses has boarded the freighter with several new ‘hires.’ Now we shall see whether they can hold it against this ‘Captain Blood.’”

“Captain Blud Tusk, Master” the Butler corrects.

“Whatever his nom de guerre, we want him to take the blame, but not the ship. What do you think Apprentice? Can they make that happen?”

INTRO:

So, the Johnson sets a meet at the old Bulldog Scrapyard in the Redmond Barrens at oh dark 30, of course. You find him they’re leaning against the side of the Mitsubishi night sky limousine smiling his plastic smile on his plastic face with his Slicked-back blonde hair.
He has two plastic guards with him, very well armed and, either anthropomorphic drones or full body cyborgs. They are very plastic – or maybe titanium.

“Gentlemen, my name is Mr. Johnson. My principal has a job for you. It is primarily an extraction on a heavily defended corporate site. my principal has discovered that the target’s research team has recently completed a prototype of an upgraded heavy armor cyborg/drone body of some sort. My principal wants the data, chief scientist, and prototype itself extracted. However, it is understood that the prototype is likely very large and bulky and perhaps impossible to be extracted – in which case it needs to be destroyed.

“The target is the Shiawase corporate tower in downtown Seattle. The R&D facility is located on the 80th floor. My principal has learned that, with the completion of this research and the development of the prototype, the entire project is scheduled to be moved to Japan Friday morning. Once that happens, extraction of the technology will be effectively impossible. Consequently this extraction must occur Thursday night or no later than 0400 hrs. Friday morning.

“The fee is 10,000 each upfront, with several bonuses based on Mission completion. Extraction of the head scientist for the project, Nicholas Kerensky, is worth 200,000. Retrieving the project data and prototype plans is worth 250,000. Destroying the prototype is worth 100,000. Extracting the prototype is worth 1,000,000.

“So? Are you interested?”

AAR:
1 notoriety
1 public awareness

Karma:

Cred
$ 20k each upfront

$1,667,500 total for completion or $333,500 each (+20k)

Stealing sarcophagi and submarines:

Having no other offers on the table, Oeam Overkill took up Mr. L’s job. Of course it didn’t go smoothly. Clive, mincing about with the backpack full of explosives and new water breathing augmentations, infiltrated the yakuza guarding the pier. Everything was going swimmingly for a moment until another team showed up evidently working for an organization called LOPTR. They were led by a cocky bastard named Bowman, who kept yelling “Lana!!!!!!!” and another clown who looked like an accountant and kept yelling “suppressing fire!”

The crew of the submarine attempted to defend itself from both attacks, but Lot’s sniper overwatch position on a crane 800 m across the water took the wind out of their sails, as did a trio of heavily armed drones run by Perses. Clive put on the finishing touches by detonating 2 pounds of plastic explosives and blowing himself into the water. The ensuing mess cracked the lid of the sarcophagus but the team was ultimately able to take possession of it and the submarine itself. Alabaster took over the running of the submarine, and was even able to wedge the Krupp Komet in the aft hold.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team peeked inside the broken lid of the ancient sarcophagus. Inside was a man holding three weapons in his crossed arms: hammer, trident and sword. All were covered in dust and cobwebs, still as the grave . . . Until the man sucked in a deep rasping breath.

The team quickly hustled the sarcophagus back to Mr. L’s lair. The man himself was not pleased by the damage to the sarcophagus and his goblin minions in their incongruous waistcoats shuffled about, muttering, while arranging to move the artifact inside. Lot loitered about conveying his curiosity to Mr. L who said not a word, turning on his heel, striding after his prize.

Leaving the door open.

Lot followed the procession in to the elevator that the master reserved for his exclusive use. The goblins seem the both agitated and subdued while the master stood without moving, looking down through the broken lid. Occasionally a rasping breath echoed from within.

The elevator stopped. The goblins quickly shuffled the sarcophagus into a large room. It looked like a cross between Mary Potter: the Fifth Generation at Hogwarts, and a very expensive hospital suite. As goblins moved the sarcophagus to the center of the room, others began turning on various machines, lighting candles and incense and sprinkling powders in various bowls.

Lughaidh remained on the elevator, his hands clasped behind his back looking at the sarcophagus… with trepidation? Finally he turned to Lot “would you care to assist me?”

Lot walked to the sarcophagus

Over the next several hours various high-tech sensors as well as arcane rituals and devices were used on the subject in the sarcophagus. It became clear to Lot that the weapons clutched by this individual were powerful magical artifacts and that the individual himself might be considered one as well. The subject was clearly still alive even though Lughaidh’s tests determined that the sarcophagus had been sealed for almost 10,000 years. Lot was unsure that he should accept the test’s veracity.

The subject was removed from his tomb and placed on a gurney. The weapons were moved to a bench on the far side of the room where they were examined and cleaned. “Triton work this,” Lughaidh concluded of the trident. “Possibly forged for Triton himself. The hammer is clearly Dvaegar forged, but this” he held the sword reverently, “this I think was made by Druthgar himself.”

“That name probably holds no meaning for you, does it child?” Lughaidh raised his hand bowing his head slightly, “I apologize. I never cared to be called a child, no matter my age. But in my homeland you would not be considered an adult until you had passed your first century, and you are well short of half a century I think?”

Lughaidh raised his head as if he could see through the ceiling. “Almost everyone in this world is a child to me now. And to him.”

Lughaidh looked back to the subject on the gurney. The raspy breath had been replaced by a regular but very slow, quiet rhythm. On first inspection the subject appeared to be entirely gray. Lot assumed that was due to the coating of dust and cobwebs. But when cleaned, the subject’s pallor hardly changed. Hair and flesh looked were a faded, almost translucent, grayish-white, like an old T-shirt washed too many times. The only deviation from that faint tone was his prosthetic left arm. Once cleaned, it was a gleaming silver simulacrum from shoulder to fingertips.

“His condition is not good. Even holding a Druthgari a blade infused with orichalc, the sensory deprivation has driven him deep into the fugue. It may be that he will not recover. In fact he has faded so far that I cannot recognize him by his face. But I still sense some part of the soul and kinship with it. That, and his silver arm lead me to believe that this is Kharis, a friend from my youth. He was Bosun on the first ship to run the channel and end the blockade on my homeland.

“It seems Kharis must’ve returned home at the end. He was on Atlantis when it drowned.”

Lughaidh notes the look on Lot’s face. “Do you believe in Atlantis? It is been much in the news recently. The Atlantean Foundation. The Draco Foundation. Many organizations are searching the Atlantic for evidence of it even now. Yet many people still believe it a myth.” Lughaidh smiles.

“Atlantis is real. I was born there.”

“Will you help me go home?”

Mr. L. has another mission for the runners. Rourke contacts the team. Nobody else seems to want to put their faith in a bunch of runners called team overkill. It is been six months since the team return from Portland and pickings are slim.

The job is straightforward… A black market cargo hauler is offloading in ancient sarcophagus at a pier in Tacoma. Mr. L. wants the team to intercept the sarcophagus and bring it back to him.

The Yakuza are in charge of the black market pier. Mr. L. is fairly certain that the sarcophagus will be met by some sort of security detail, but he does not have any particulars. The transport is an Aztec Profit class submarine. It makes frequent runs from Vladivostok to Malaysia to Japan to Seattle.

The submarine is scheduled to arrive Thursday night. Mr. L. has offered 50,000 each for the retrieval of this cargo. 10,000 upfront.

Clive: isn’t she like really inebriated? She’s got some good reflexes for a chick with a dick in her mouth.

Posted by 11 Bravo

Nothing better than waking up with a foul hangover on a gurney in a hospital gown. The really sad thing is I think this had happened to me before. Anyhow looks like we were picked up by the Tir police and chained to these hospital beds in an unused wing of the public hospital. I broke my restraints and got the other guys out, but perses must’ve got a double dose of whatever they used. Heard voices outside the next room so we scrambled for cover when the nurse walked through. She realized something was wrong and scampered back out. I rushed through the door, knocking her on her face and surprising the pair of Portland PD cops who were looking over all of our gear. I grabbed the one with a clipboard put him in a chicken wing. The other one drew down on me and fired off a round. I guess they don’t train them like they used to.

In any event he didn’t hit either of us. alabaster had my back, rushing in to engage in a very sad display – tumbling around on the floor with the nurse. In any event she was out for a bit and the new guy we picked up joined the fray. Evidently pistols remortgage the, still had a bit of the standoff. We’ve got the door block and a little bit of the upper hand. After some negotiation back and forth with cops and regrettably they just let us out, Cordesman didn’t explain the mechanism for that. Alabaster used his brand-new drone when it got done freeze up quick draw McGraw, the zip tied together to hit all of them when the lease/patches found off those paladins.

We got our gear back in recorded Prince telling us at least a little of what it happened

>>>Posted by ElevenBravo

Right. So we went to the Dog Soldiers and had a confab with their leader, Red Feather. Turns out these neo-Luddite, hippie, Amerinds primarily run cover for smugglers from the Tir to the SS and into Seattle. They knew we had the leader’s sister and of course wanted her back. They seemed a bit usually intransigent regarding the concept of ransom. Maybe they were so down on their luck they couldn’t pay a cred? Or maybe they just didn’t understand the time-honored tradition of ransoming – or appreciate the serious potential for their impending extermination.

Whatever. We had a discussion about potential nonmonetary arrangements, for the return of the sister. Perses wasn’t too keen on the idea, until he was reminded of the fact that he had over half million ¥ sitting in his account. Then things moved pretty swiftly and the spans and the shooters decided to have a summit. They asked us to broker the deal.

Scoped the place out to make sure there were many ambushes and everything was on the up and up. In fact, just to make things a little more enjoyable Prince Paris crashed the party. Both sides were arguing hellishly, again somehow unaware of their impending extermination, and things looked like they were going downhill. Then the Shooters’ madame proposed a ritual combat between champions for the two sides. She wanted me to be her champion. A bit pretentious I thought, but then the Prince jumped in and said he thought it was a great idea.

Now it was pretentious AND official.

The spans jumped right up and picked Perses to go against me. Of course.

So – we went at it. Seemed like forever, but the TACNET told me – when I woke up – that the whole thing barely lasted four seconds.

For damn sure going to get some electric insulation on my armor.

And now apparently the Prince has yet another job lined up for us.

Prince Parris has a mission for Team Overkill, but that mission is usurped by a vendetta. The prince’s rally in the park gets interrupted by a drive by. Everyone freaks out about the random bystanders caught in the crossfire. In Seattle, we call this “Tuesday.”

Parris is pissed about petty gangs chucking bullets down the streets of Peaceful Portland. He wants the fighting stopped. Use diplomacy or any means necessary, says the frenzied Prince, which, to Team Overkill, means use deadly force unless we can personally benefit from talking after which point we will use deadly force anyway.

Who is the omniscient narrator who understands this team’s motivations so well?
>>>ElevenBravo

There are four street gangs involved in this job fair, the ‘runners learn from Parris’s trusted VP of corporate analogy, Mr. Horn. In one reserved in advance boardroom, you have the dwarven Sons of Gimli and their female allies, the Shooters. In the other boardroom is the native Dog Soldiers backed up by the Shooters biggest enemy the… somethings. The Spans? What the fuck does that even mean? Even as orc street gang names go, you have to admit that is fucking stupid.

I agree entirely
>>>ElevenBravo

Alabaster, Parish, and Perses decide to check out the Son’s of Gimli’s clubhouse and set up some reconnaissance. While their driver, Mr. Johnson, idles the SUV out front, TO decides to go in for a drink, which is code for “go in and try to extort the gang for protection money.” That pretty much fails, but the ’runners did identify the leader and his girlfriend, a hot elf lassy named Smiles-With-The-Sun. Armed with a fury (that from the outside, kinda looks like a temper tantrum, just sayin)

Please don’t ask me to weep for the deaths of a bunch of gangbanging murderers who are a blight on society.
>>>ElevenBravo

the Team resolves to leave and then come in again, this time under the covering fire of one of Alabaster’s rotodrones. That ended poorly for the Sons as they were flashbanged and shot to a man, either during the fight, or afterwards when Alabaster returned to execute the prisoners as they lie bound in a storeroom. They got their licks in though, and Perses will be pulling slugs out of his gut this evening while the rest of the team does whatever they have planned for Smiles-With-The-Sun.

That’s right, Team Overkill somehow avoids killing Smiles-With-The-Sun,

pure accident
>>>ElevenBravo

who, they found out earlier, is the sister of Red Feather, the leader of the Dog Soldiers, and the Juliet in this remake of that Romeo & Juliet movie (not to be confused with the Romeo & Juliet Shadowrun mission which is in no way associated with this session summary). They decide it is in their own best interest to bind up the girl, gag her, and keep a taser in her back to make sure she stays unconscious while they pile into the SUV and bring her back to their hotel room…

Yeah.

Main question . . . is she a mage?
>>>ElevenBravo

Guys, this is where we see about planning our next move
>>>ElevenBravo

Rook = dick

some 405 hellhounds attacked our trucks.
I grenadiered the left flank spattering one and causing another to ditch. the shot the last 2 I could see with my mg.
Perses splattered a half dozen with his MG on suppression fire and the rest backed off.

Parish 1 helicopter/1 assist/3 gangers
Perses 1 assist/4 gangers/

Lughaidh tells you to lay low for a few months due to heat from blood mages and ATS. You have time for R&R, put in a few orders for equipment, get your new equipment, and still have time to spare. You all have level 110 World of Warcraft 7 paladins by the time your links buzz. Surprisingly, it’s Rourke’s grizzled mug that lights up your screens and promises an end to the monotony.

“‘Team Overkill?’ Seriously? No wonder why everyone in Seattle wants you dead. Well, not quite everyone. How would you like a chance to keep your skills sharp, let someone else take the blame for whatever carnage you cause, AND make some new friends in the process? Oh, and money. There’s money involved, too.”

Carnage piques your interest at least as much as money, so you’re in. Rourke provides the details:

“Mr. Johnson is an Ancient hotshot named Belial. They’re putting on some sort of elf ritual game thing tonight at the Daisy Chain in Tarislar. Get there at 11pm and they’ll fill you in. Belial tells me that whatever you do, it won’t be pinned on you unless you get stupid about it. That’s why I thought of you guys.”

Lot bows out. His bags are packed and he’s ready to beat feet, but he tells you a connection of his will take his spot on the run. A soldier named Parish he did a few runs with awhile back.

You get to the Daisy Chain to find this Parish already there. You meet Belial and he lays out the game: You’re his proxies in a scavenger hunt. You have an hour to hit up to five places and let the Ancients have the credit. Targets are a Humanis Policlub clubhouse, a Spikes bar, Skraacha orcs at an Underground entrance, some pimp dwarf and his drugged out girls, and, finally, an autotruck heading through the neighborhood at about 12:45. The catch is you’ll be competing against a group of Laesa elfs representing the current Ancient’s leader, Sting. If you win, Belial gets the Ancients as a birthday present. You lose… Well, don’t lose.

Before heading out, Perses gives the Laesa crew a goodwill present of a nausea grenade through door of their rover. You peel out as the elfs scurry about opening doors in an attempt to air the vehicle out.

First stop is the dwarf pimp, Jimmy the Chin, over in the Crime Mall. Perses plays John long enough to confirm Jimmy’s most recent acquisition, a 14 year old elf kid, was present and accounted for. After that, the team closes up shop for Jimmy and his brother Billy. Permanently. Finding the Chin’s van nearby, the team loads up the girls and sends them home to Belial via pilot program.

Next destination is the Humanis racists. Their plan to chuck TNT through the door goes sour when Gyoza scuffs some gravel, alerting a roof racist that something going down. Parish and Perses take the back door, while Ceana whips the ride around in preparation for the inevitable fireworks. Gyoza gets inside just in time to count bodies, since Parish and Perses made better time. Parish grabs whatever hoods he can carry, Perses grabs their flag, and Gyoza sets the bomb. As the team speeds off toward their next destination, they are treated to rear view mirror full of explosions.

The team determines they have enough time to hit the Spikes bar before tracking down the autotruck. Their plan to crack that nut with a rocket and followup with grenades to make mincemeat of those troll Spikes is pretty near foolproof… if not for what goes around comes around. The Laesa crew left a present for the team in the form of a strand of monofiliment cable stretched across the street. Gyoza at the helm loses all four tires and skids out of control, coming to rest against a building across the street from the bar. Their rover essentially useless, the team nabs the Spikes motorcycles, but not before busting open the Twisted Tusk anyway. Seems they were beat getting there, as their targets had already met their demise and been stripped of their horns. Determined to get some trophies, Gyoza and Ceana remove the trolls of the last of their dignity before heading out to intercept the autotruck.

Team Overkill is late to the party as the Laesa crew already have a man on the truck ready to take over. Through a combination of grenades and compulsion, Parish and Ceana work together to divert the majority of the Laesa team, sending them speeding down some side road. Gyoza manages to gain access to the cab and control of the truck, but the remaining elf doesn’t give up without a fight. He places a boot in Gyoza’s face, causing the dwarf to slam on the brakes. Parish just manages to avoid slamming into the back of the truck, and he ditches the bike to aid Gyoza. The street sam, it seems, has everything under control, zapping the Laesa elf into sweet slumber. Tossing the elf to the side of the road, Parish takes control of the truck, and they speed to victory at the Daisy Chain.

The team started planning a bit from their overwatch, then Perses decided to get going. he sneaked across the valley and scaled the cliff, climbing the wall. Lord Zero tried to trick the bad guys into leaving the castle, but instead, they went out onto the battlements, looking for trouble. Lot joined the fray by mind controlling a squad of SS troops causing them to fire on their allies. During the friendly fire-firefight, Perses reached the top of the castle wall and began slicing and dicing. The remaining SS troops recognized the threat and drove him to cover with their fusillade.

That’s when the Panzer arrived, screaming over the castle ramparts and shredding SS troopers with cannon and machine gun fire. The survivors went for cover in one of the towers. Perses chases them down, crossing the yard and dashing into the front door of the keep. there were a lot of muzzle flashes and Perses walked out with smoking barrels, leaving behind a room full of corpses.

The team headed downstairs, encountering Herr Oberst and Herr Book. Lot’s Elemental proved the stronger, and the room was cleared. The team then discovered that the Germans had been tunneling into the wall of the basement and that beyond was a carved limestone tunnel leading deeper into the hill. They decided to explore, following a long winding ramp leading ever downward. when in finally leveled out, it opened into a large cavern lit by a bluinsh green light emanating from a large crystal formation in the center of the cavern. Coiled around it was a mound of bliush scales – over 50 meters of western dragon, looking right at the team. It is apparently content to continue to slumber here. It also refused to give its name.

otherwise the castle is secure, Kenna can plant the device and you can all go home-ish.

After leaving the dragon’s den, you head back upstairs, kenna places the second device. at midnight you are teleported back to 2052, about a week before the rest of yourselves actually arrive. the baron greets zero as a long lost cousin, but is apparently dissatisfied that he is not a troll. you wine and dine for a bit. Goldi informs the baron that a muckity-muck from Aztechnology has requested a visit. However he doesn’t show up for his appointment a few days later. There is word of a new set of small scale rebellions to the north. A few days after that, every one is laid low with a combination of dysentery and the bends. it lasts several days. the baron does not make it. Goldi calls the lawyers and gets the ball moving on the succession.

Kenna herds every one together and heads back to Seattle, with the book. The Johnson cuts loose 40k cred for everyone. The following midnight the team returns to the parking garage. they are whisked back to 2072, where they are met by a goblin. “come quickly . . this place is watched.” he ushers them out and takes them on a tour of Puyallup. about 20 minutes later, some pyrotechnics occur behind them. “I think we are clear now. the master says you are watched by the blood mages. He has arranged a place to stay here. you should lay low for a while, until things cool off.”

The team has returned to the castle of Baron von Munchmausen at approximately 0200 hours, June 8, 1944. They have brought the Panzer to rest on a small plateau over 3 km from the castle. There is no footpath to their current position. They have arrived at approximately 30% fuel remaining and depleted ammunition particularly for the auto cannon. The team has launched both of the panzer’s drones for reconnaissance.

They have discovered that the castle is occupied by what appears to be a light company of SS. There are two major routes into the valley, a rail route to the north and a road to the east. Each of these appear to be guarded by an MP platoon with light caliber towed antitank weaponry. The closest, the railway checkpoint is approximately 4 km from the castle. The road checkpoint is approximately 10 km from the castle.

The castle itself clearly has light antiaircraft batteries on at least two of the towers. The SS troopers also walk patrols and there appeared to be sandbags reinforcing the battlements, barbed wire limiting the approaches, and floodlights set up around the perimeter.

Lord zero has intercepted, and decoded, a transmission from the castle ostensibly directed to someone in Berlin directing the recipient to “tell the Fuhrer that we have nearly breached the inner sanctum. I believe we will have his prize shortly.”

Lot and Caenna both detect a lessening of the magic dead zone the closer they get to the castle.

Day of Days Intro

The Germans took the Panzer under heavy fire with machine guns, small arms, and mortars, but none of it was sufficient to pierce the hull’s armor. Z3R0 was scanning radio traffic and quickly decrypted the Allied fire control net. Caenna initiated contact with the remains of the infantry company to their left. Lot attempted to summon a spirit, but was worried that this magic dead world would have no spirits. Meanwhile Alabaster turn the tank’s main gun on the bunkers, chewing into the 2 m thick reinforced concrete and shrouding the bunker in clouds of dust and debris. Gyoza attempted to decoy some of the enemy gunners with his holo emitter, but its range was too short and the incoming fire to heavy to have any appreciable effect.

Caenna succeeded in making contact with SSG Smith, who then brought forward their senior NCO, SFC Stammel. Stammel was wounded but Caenna was able to heal him slightly, even in the oppressively magic dead environment. Likewise, Lot finally succeeded in calling a spirit. He sent his air elemental to manifest in the leftmost bunker as Alabaster shifted fire to the right one. Moments later the left bunker strobed with lightning and one German through himself out of the bunker rather than suffer electrocution. Throughout all of this, Alpha Company troops were shouting in elation and relief as the ‘top-secret tank’ stabbed beams of light at the enemy bunkers.

Once healed, SFC Stammel started calling for fire – and Lord Z3R0 worked his electronic magic to put his fire support calls to the top of the queue with the USS Nevada. The first shots went long but Z3R0 was using the tank’s sensors and his own TacNet program to calculate the fall of the shot and relevant variables. He sent SFC Stammel a new set of corrections and Stammel put in a second call for fire.

Lot sent his elemental to wreak havoc among the mortar tubes and Gyoza led half of the Alpha Company survivors up to the cliff base. He was able to plant some charges causing damage to the leftmost bunker but moments later, as he attempted to advance through the draw, his squad was taken under fire by another machine gun nest. he quickly dodged out of the way but a half-dozen of his men were cut down.

Meanwhile, back in the tank Alabaster had some of the soldiers working on the jammed louvers outside while he was tearing apart the access panels to the turbine in the back of the tank. Lot had taken over as primary gunner and the tank was almost fixed. A second round of fire came from the Nevada and Z3R0’s directions proved impeccable. Five 2000 (probably lighter – the Nevada had 14” guns) pound rounds slammed into the bluff detonating more than 8000 pounds of TNT and eradicating that whole side of the German defense.

Dog One was open.

Moments later Alabaster got the turbines up and running again, Gyoza hoofed it back to the tank and the wounded on board were debarked. Caenna apologized to the soldiers because that they were going deeper in enemy territory, not back to a hospital. The soldiers thanked them profusely for all their help – then the tank rose on pillars of air.

The tank screamed forward jumping over obstacles and was confronted with a pair of Pzkw IV’s. They were older models with short-barreled 50 mm guns, but a direct hit might cause damage and they began to traverse their turrets . . .
But the Komet simply screamed past them, quickly reorienting itself on its attitude thrusters pouring 20 mm depleted uranium shells into the weaker rear panels of the Panzers. One started smoking and the other’s turret blew clear off as the ammunition inside exploded. As a parting gift the Komet put 20 more rounds of cannon fire into the last function machine gun nest on Dog One. In the distance they could see the second wave of LCT’s coming in. The remnants of Alpha Company and the Ranger Company assaulted the draw as the Komet screamed through the early morning air above the hedgerows of Normandy.

So how the hell are you guys going to get to Bavaria?

AAR

After a numbing assault of torsion and light (far worse than your previous experiences) the Komet’s sensors report that you are on the deck of a strange ship. You hear – and feel – the heavy concussions of large caliber naval guns not too far away. In between the heavies, you hear the reports of lighter pieces – all bigger than anything you have encountered previously.

On deck the crew are shouting, bewildered by your sudden appearance. It looks like they might be thinking of lashing your vehicle to the deck and arresting its occupants. At least a few of you recognize them as US military, circa WWII. Alabaster starts spooling up the engines to make a getaway.

The panzer rises into the air on its thrusters, orienting itself and reaching out with its terrain mapping radar. A moment later, you hear pings as small arms rounds begin striking the hull. Alabaster puts the throttle forward to get the hell out of dodge, when suddenly there is a loud explosion, starboard. The craft shudders under impact and the turbines start to scream. “That’s not right” Alabaster starts working his magic, jetting forward at over 200 knots. More small arms fire hits the hull, sporadically. Air bursts buffet the panzer with their concussion. Alabaster is struggling with the controls, but the craft is definitely not reaching its top speed – and its starting to list to starboard.

“The intake is jammed. We’ve got no ground effect. I’ve got to put it down or we’re going to roll.”

The Komet continues to list and lose altitude. You are now hanging by your harnesses as the main hatch rotates underneath you. You hear the attitude thrusters fire – full bore – and the ship partially corrects as it slews to present its port broadside to the oncoming fire.

Turbines and thrusters screaming, the craft slams into the shingle of the beach – partially hull down. You are still taking small arms fire, but it appears that you may have defilade at the moment form the enemy’s heavier weapons. Outside, the sensors show a small group of men to the left clustered near the shingle. The nearest is perhaps 30m away. There are bodies floating in the water. To the right, you see a smaller group of men clustered under the sea wall perhaps 150 meters away. Ahead, you see a 200m expanse of shell-cratered beach leading to bluffs at least 30 meters high. A draw leads up from the beach, almost directly ahead. On either side, you see concrete casemates and pill boxes spewing tracer fire at the clusters of men, and now at your banshee.

Your sensors are detecting artillery fire from beyond the bluffs. A light mortar round lands a few meters from the Komet. It rocks slightly under the concussion as it is sprayed with shrapnel and debris. A moment later, a much larger round rocks the panzer, throwing up a geyser of sand almost 50 meters away.

“The starboard intake is jammed! Starboard thrusters don’t work! We’re not going to be able to get off this beach on ground effect! We have to fix the intake so that we can hop out of this firezone!” Alabaster looks a little wild-eyed. “And I think we’re going to have to silence those guns to do it!”

FNG (Cean?) joined the team to tell them that there was a problem . . .

Acatl was gunned down by Perses on full auto. he was not dead though, so Lot shot him in the head. Now he is. The homunculous collapsed after that.

Ishikawa was stun bolted by Cean(sp?) and ultimately surrendered to Perses and Gyoza, who were having flashbacks with him similar to those with Slicer Dicer.

the team activated the artifact and were transported . . .
to the deck of an LST returning after dropping its tanks in the drink on D-Day . . .

The Team’s newest acquisition

Munchmausen Raid Setup

Virst qvestion: vere are your pants?! But more important: vere ist the PANZER!?”

Munchmausen Town

The door buzzer rings. The team sees a little pale goblin in the video feed monitoring the back alley entrance to the safe house. He seems to have an envelope of all things in his hand.

Mission Setup

The team, chafing to be summoned again by Lughaidh, nevertheless loaded into Lord Z3R0’s van and drove to the elf’s tower. Once again the tower was shrouded in mist, the grounds populated by goblins and trolls. The moon seemed larger here, and on the whole the place might have seemed like some idyllic setting straight out of Tolkien except for the garish strobing lights coming from a window on the third floor. As they approached the building the curtains in that window were drawn back to reveal their long lost companion Clive evidently having his way with one of the local denizens.

The goblin Butler in his little waistcoat and fob watch escorted them to the elevator. It stopped at the third floor opening to reveal Clive, slightly sweaty and wearing nothing but a smoking jacket, standing pendulously before them. His eyes were glassy and he seemed somehow taller, but then he dove right into his usual inane banter as if not a moment had passed. The elevator continued its trek to the 14th floor letting the team out to the strange hallway which seemed to be open to the night sky above. Lughaidh met them in the same place as their last encounter where he explained that he had another set of missions for them to undertake, very similar to their last one.

Lughaidh cautioned them on any significant deviations from their mission, particularly gambling or investing in anything smaller than a AA Corporation. The problem as he explained it was that such deviations were thought to cause ‘ripples’ which can alter the timeline in unforeseen ways perhaps leading to their own extinction. ’Paradox must be threaded very carefully.’

The team showed itself to be quite reluctant so Lughaidh made them and deal. They would be able to keep any of the money offered by the Johnsons on the runs they were intercepting, and he would give them ¥65,000 up front. In addition Lughaidh agreed to give the entire team ¥1 million in gold to take back with them on their last mission to invest as they saw fit, so long as it was in a AA or larger corporation. He explained that investments of seven figures smaller or so minuscule compared to the actual cash flow and assets of such corporations that they had little if any chance of causing a ripple.

Most of the runners were licking their chops at such an incredible payday, but lot, sensibly, question the probability of their return from the last mission. Lughaidh assured that they would finish their final mission and he would bring them home. The team accepted that assurance.

They took three days to square away gear and do some research. Lord Z3R0 for instance researched matrix protocols and equipment, particularly how to interface his state-of-the-art gear with 20-year-old junk. Lughaidh had also informed them that he was attempting something new. Specifically he had established a pair of computer terminals in the parking garage links to powerful wireless transmitters that he hoped would allow zero to maintain access to the present day matrix.

The team headed back to the garage that lughaidh’s goblin minions put on the medallions. A few moments later the goblins were gone and the computer terminals clearly of a different model. Assuming this all wasn’t some elaborate BTL hoax, they were back to early 2051. A call came through on the link introducing them to a fixer named Charlie. They headed off to the meet, accepted the job, and hunkered down for an intense 10 minute planning session.

They decided to go with a delivery truck option. The APN headquarters was an old city building that was built around a large garage with three bays middle of the building. There were a few elves patrolling the outside with swords, bows and arrows, and the occasional shotgun all dressed leather. The whole thing was in the very significant shadow of the Renraku Arcology.

Zero backed up the truck and one of the guards came over straightaway to find out what they were doing. Perses rolled down the window he met with a hail of Renaissance Festival yammering. Without missing a beat, the Gillette rolled straight into “forsooth and such” earning a lifelong friend (not that long) who did his damnedest over the next two minutes to recruit Perses and his pals.

The elves open the middle bay and zero backed the truck in halfway. Perses asked the guards, five total now, to get a higher ranking member to “sign for the delivery.” One of the poser elves ran off to do just that. But, before anyone returned, Zero became far too disgusted with the ‘Thees’ and ‘Thous’ and splattered two of the posters with his Uzi. He was still in the truck.

Perses who had his arm around his new buddy placed his hand against his chest pretending to seen some sort of stain on his jerkin. The Gillette popped his spurs right through his newfound friend’s shirt, skin, lungs and back. The only remaining elf in the room was dumbfounded until Lot and Gyoza pumped three rounds of Magnum into the poser. he had a far more complete understanding of the situation then. As the gunfire echoed around the large open bay, the team decided to hunker down and wait.

Lot and Zero stayed the van while Gyoza stood by the door that the poser had gone through. Perses made a quick check of the two doors on the other side of the room and found them to be mostly storage. However he did note that one of the rooms had a ladder leading down to a basement level. Lot put his watcehr spirit on that as Perses returned to join Gyoza by the door.

Minutes passed. Eventually Perses heard movement on the far side of the door is a group of APN numbers got ready to assault the room. One of them kicked the door open but the team was ready and Lot dropped all six of the first wave with a stun ball. The razor boys moved into the hallway quickly katanas permanently ending their opposition. Five were done for and they were moving to the sixth was in the intersection of the hallway of the head when they heard “clank . . . clank . . . KRUMP!!!”

Perses and Gyoza both threw themselves backwards as the grenade detonated. they got far enough to get out of the immediate kill radius. Heavy armor and cyberware, as well as being generally tough bastards, let them off with some serious bruising and lacerations. Perses took a quick peek around the corner and saw another four guys set up in the hallway down past the stairwell. He sent his own grenade their way return the favor. they weren’t nearly so quick. Cries of alarm were smothered by the explosion, leaving one voice shrieking for his mother while another whimpered piteously.

Perses dashed across the hall taking cover around the corner and scanning ahead for enemies. Not seeing any, he moved several meters further down the hall, covering it with his machine gun. Gyoza rushed past Perses to the wounded. He stepped on the whimpering guy’s hand while readying his sword. BLAM! Someone on the staircase shot him in the back with a shotgun at close range. Again Gyoza’s armor and cyberware saved his life. Back at the first intersection, Lot could barely see the hand of the shotgun shooter while taking cover around the corner. It was enough. He unleashed a manabolt spell but discovered that there was another wizard opposing his own casting. The other wizard was weaker. Shotgun and shooter tumbled down the stairs.

The door at the far end of the hall opened and someone stuck an AK-97 out, spraying the hall would lead. Lot ducked back behind the corner while Gyoza and Perses droped to the ground. Gyoza attempted to roll a grenade to the doorway but it bounced badly, going around the corner and detonating. Perses opened up with his M-202 splintering the doorway and the adjoining wall. He was rewarded with a startled yell followed by the shrieking of a young child.

Lot’s watcher spirit told him that someone was coming up the ladder. Lot sent Zero a message in AR and Zero deployed the .50 cal to cover the door. A Rambo elf festooned with guns and grenades rushed through the doorway only to be blasted to pulp a moment later.

The rest of the team was still in the hallway choked with smoke and dust and bodies. Lot knew there were still a wizard upstairs and nobody was particularly keen on rushing up to engage him. Lord Zero settled it though, traversing his .50 cal to fire through the wall were Lot estimated the stairwell landing to be.

Bullets punched through the cinder block wall spraying chunks of debris down the stairway that were followed a moment later by a wizardly forearm, and then a wizard (sans forearm). The fight in the hallway had destroyed the lights leaving the hall in darkness. But now, as the .50 cal ceased its fire, beams of white light from the stairwell stabbed down through the swirling smoke and dust in the now quiet hall. Only the occasional thud of a falling piece of masonry disturbed the stillness.

After a few moments they could discern the sobbing of a young child through the bullet riddled door at the end of the hall.

AAR

January 10, 2072

Can’t I just strip Gyoza naked and wear his chameleon suit?
Gyoza’s a dwarf
Shit!

So the team spent about a week in the safe house at Johnny Wu’s.

Perses texted a laundry list of stuff to Rourke that he wanted the fixer to procure for him if possible. He got a message back telling them to go meet ‘scruffy’ for victuals at the Redmond center at 7 PM. When he got there he found Cotter acting foolishly drunk and making a big show of picking himself up off the ground by grabbing onto a bench – particularly underside of the bench.

However it also became apparent that law enforcement officers were watching the same events. Two men in black suits and ties, presumably Feds, moved to pick up the dead drop. Perses was oblivious but Lot saw them coming and quickly cast a physical barrier at their feet, tripping them up. Perses made it to the spot but found nothing there. The feds on the other hand noticed Perses and decided to hold back for a minute to observe him. At the same time Lot discovered a fly-spy drone had landed on his shoulder and seemed to be modified for a special wired I/O jack on its back. He swept it up into a coffee cup and turned it off.

The feds quickly realized that Perses was on to them so they signaled the rest of their goons to take him. Lot and perses began their escape and evasion routine. Lot was about 20 m closer to the exit and got out quickly. Perses ducked behind the moving crowds and evaded the feds for a moment until one of the officers on the balcony above spotted him. Lot had made it out to the parking garage where he saw a KE space MPUV pull up to cover the the entrance with assault rifles and a light machine gun. He communicated this to Perses who took a quick right down the hallway towards the movie-plex. Feds and KE troops were now in hot pursuit. Perses dashed over to a fire alarm and pulled it creating panic amongst the movie patrons. Back in the parking garage, Lot could see that the MPUV crew was getting ready to move over to cover the movie theater entrance about 40 m away.

The air suddenly began to shimmer and crackle around Lot, so intense it began to emit a subsonic hum. It suddenly disappeared as three smaller mirroring disturbances burst around the heads of the MPUV crew, dropping them to the ground. Lot dashed over to the bike and got it started while Perses rushed out of the movie-plex with the panicked crowd. They raced towards the garage entrance finding a small fleet of Drones waiting for them. Perses leaned over for a hard right and the drones moved to follow. Two of the drones quickly outpaced the others then turned and in the air, firing grenade-like canisters towards the rest the pack. They detonated, releasing the ball of energy and dropping the drones to the ground.

Lot and Perses decided to go track down Rourke give him a piece of their mind for setting up. they could hear sirens in the distance and on one occasion, down a side street, they saw two MPUVs blocked by a garbage truck that had apparently stalled out across the street. Minutes later they turned on the street heading down to the Bad Penny. Now they could see many more sirens from a series of law enforcement vehicles clustered around the bar. Lot and Perses decided to reevaluate their plan.

They went to ground for a short while and then decided they needed to contact someone else to find out what was going on. Lot put in a call to McAllister who declined to speak to the phone. Instead he set up a meeting at a bar in the ork underground. Lot and Perses travel in Lot’s car and successfully evaded any police patrols.

McAllister told them what he learned from his contact with the DA’s office. Essentially Lot and his friends were the only lead that the special task force had been able to turn up – in the month of its existence – about the hijacked suborbital. Because of the severe pressure to get things done they pulled out all the stops going after the people who were wiping out the Chiller Thrillers, their only lead. Whether it was rival gang warfare or the terrorists themselves decided to wipe out their ‘front’ the special task force didn’t know, but they certainly intended to ask.

McAllister also informed them that they had rather bad, grainy images of their faces from the night in a shootout with the Chiller Thrillers. In addition they had the names of Lot and Gyoza and the fact that they frequented a place called the Bad Penny. As a result when Perses contacted Rourke, Rourke presumably knew that KE was listening to all telecommunications going in and out of his building no matter that they had ‘clean’ phone. So he set up a meet knowing it would be tracked. Cotter was a diversion and the fly-spyis the actual message putting together a contact site for the team to reach him on ShadowSEA.

McAllister hooked Perses up with some APDS ammunition for his guns. (20 for the pistols 100 for the machine gun) He also put the guys in contact with a doctor in the underground who handled bio-sculpts and promised to look into somebody for dealing with repressed memories.

The bio-sculpt doc, a wizened little dwarf of Asian descent with a lackluster bedside manner, informed Perses that the scar on his neck was actually a colony of nanites. The doctor had no idea of the purpose of the nanites as it was outside his field of expertise but he promised to get in touch with someone who may be able to help.

Lot and Perses and then went to Lester’s saloon to have a chat with Cpt. Dalton (Retired) to see what they can see about the Knight Errant situation.

AAR

Lot to Perses: slide up and grab my unh . . .

As the team was figuring out how to handle the slicer dicer situation, they heard the whine of small turbines overhead. They quickly learned that Knight Errant had dispatched a pair of winged reconnaissance drones to keep tabs on them. In addition at least one rigger was piggy-backing the drones and Alabaster joined in electronic battle with the Knight Errant units.

One of Alabaster’s roto-drones was forced to sit down the other was apparently captured, possibly destroyed. The battle was ended when high-end military jamming started wiping out the com signals. Lord Z3R0 joined the fray, taking control of one of the Knight Errant recon platforms and using its air to air missile to take out its mate.

Gyoza and Perses shuffled and now unconscious slicer dicer and builder into the back of the van. Lot started hoofing it down from the roof waiting for pickup. As he got to the ground floor the team realized that there was movement across the river and further movement on the road to the South. The sams sprinted back to their bikes, while Alabaster dove into the van. They soon realized that the South and West roads were each blocked by an armored Steel Lynx drone, backed by 6 TAN DEM drones.

Lot went astral to evaluate the threat but found a fire elemental waiting for him. He was staggered by the elemental’s attack and retreated from astral space. The drones then launched a salvo of flash bangs at Gyoza, Perses and Lot. That was enough to knock Lot out of the fight but Gyoza and Perses bulled through.

The team found their weapons ineffective against the tanks, except for the van’s .50 Cal, which Alabaster used to chew through them like rotten wood. The bikes hightailed it past the row of buildings taking them out of the line of fire – leaving the drone’s remaining weapons ineffective against the van’s armor. Which is not to say that the van’s paint job isn’t blasted to hell or that the windows are entirely unscathed.

As a parting gift Lord Z3R0 hacked one of the TAN DEMs, picking up its sensor feed and then erasing any evidence of his presence.

The team then hauled ass South out of Kingsgate and Hollywood heading for Touristville where Alabaster said he knew a guy who could hook them up with a safe house.

The safe house turned out to be Madame Zhiang’s Massage Parlor, known to law enforcement as Jimmy Wu’s Rub and Tug. For the mere pittance of 9K a month, the team (and their captive) is now shoehorned into two small bedrooms joined by a crappy little kitchenette. The apartment has a staircase down to the massage parlor’s first-floor and an additional exit to a back alley area that it shares with Lester’s Saloon and a few other disreputable, low-rent establishments.

Word has already started to get around that the Knights are hunting for the team and apparently have holos of their faces that they’re showing around to some of their known associates. They don’t yet have a handle on how extensive this man hunt is.

The team, on its own, has decided that it may well be time to put Slicer Dicer and the Chiller Thrillers out of action . . .

Thumbs up let’s do this!! Lerooooooooy JENKINS!

Lot: I just don’t want to get hit by a stray bullet
Zero: I’ve actually never been injured yet
Gyoza: Really? I’ve been injured almost every single run

So Team Overkill started planning the best methods for eradicating their foe, Slicer Dicer and his gang the Chiller Thrillers. Reconnaissance was begun primarily by Lord Z3R0 with fly-spies for visual scouting and his van for signal interception. After three days of reconnaissance Lord Z3R0 had a reasonably good count on the numbers of gang members and their camp followers and discovered that there were four additional drones sending burst transmissions of collected data.

It took approximately 6 seconds the crack the encryption on the first of the data packets. Once cracked, Zero discovered that they were wireless surveillance takes being sent to the special antiterrorism task force. Alabaster, who used to do that shit, mentioned that three were probably tracking signals while the fourth was likely picking up audio. Lord Zero did not crack any of the other files.

Lot also astrally assensed the location and discovered the general layout, the fact that they had a young street shaman and that their old companion Builder was evidently a prisoner. By the time this was learned, Team Overkill had solidly settled on a plan that included ramming a stolen van full of gasoline into the front of a gas station. There was remarkably little concern about what might happen to their former teammate. The only one who seem to have any concern was Perses who had never even met the man. In contrast zero and alabaster seem to think it would be useful cover to waste him.

January 5, 2072 – 2100hrs:

The team finally put their plans to motion, stealing a van and filling it with 100 gallons of gasoline. Alabaster and zero were set up in a parking lot about 300 m south in the A-Team van.Lot got a vantage point about 300 m to the East in an abandoned winery where he set up his sniper rifle summoned an air spirit. Percy’s and Gyoza followed the fire van in on their motorcycles.

. . .

Plan in place, and team rolled out. Alabaster, running in AR, drove the van towards the entryway of the chiller thriller compound. The van ponderously negotiated the entry obstacles – abandoned cars, stacks of tires, sandbags – while Gyoza and Perses trailed behind on their motorcycles. They split off to the left where Gyoza paused to plant an improvised anti-vehicle mine. Moments later the fire van smashed into the plexiglass windows in the front of the store. At the same time the signal was sent by Z3R0 detonating the 100 gallons of gas backup band. A fireball engulfed the front of the store throwing the people inside into a panic. Lot was watching the points of egress from the East, with a reasonably good view on three sides. Alabaster’s Doberman drones were cruising to cover the rear but were not yet in place when the fireball erupted. The two street sam’s were coming from the West to cover the garage area which had 6 rolling doors in the drive-through bays.

Shouting and screaming could be heard coming from inside. The rear door slammed open and a woman ran screaming into the night until she was silenced by around from Lot’s rifle. As her body tumbled across the pavement, Perses began throwing grenades through a window into the garage. Alabaster’s roto-drones arrived pouring suppression fire into the north hallway. Lot dispatched his air spirit to determine if anyone magical was in the building. The spirit returned to report that there was one, presumably the one Lot sensed earlier. He directed the spirit to kill the magician. Having only extorted one service from the spirit lot felt his hold on it slipping away seconds later. After that came the CRUMP-CRUMP! from several more grenades pacifying the garage area. The street sams entered the building. More screams could be heard as the Roto-drones hosed a few more individuals trying to break down the back hallway.

The fire was growing in the front of the store so that nearly half the square footage was engulfed. In the back several individuals were cowering as the samurai moved in. Several of them were just the gang’s camp followers so the gillettes brushed them aside, moving deeper into the building. The Roto-drones ceased firing down the hallways so the sams could cross the kill zone.

Fearing that not all of the Chiller Thrillers may have come down from their bunkhouse, Alabaster sent one of his rodeo drones to investigate. one stay-behind Chiller Thriller leaned his head out the window yelling to his fellows. For his trouble received a burst of machine gun fire shutting him up for good.

As the samurai moved further into the burning building, Slicer Dicer leapt through the front windows and scampered towards his bike. The smoke and heat from the fire and the bad angle limited Lot’s ability to intercept him. Moments later they heard the whine of the rice rocket scampering towards the front entrance.

Lord Z3R0 saw him coming just as Lot called out a warning -and he opened fire with the remote .50 Cal mounted on the van. Slicer Dicer leaned his bike hard-over, almost to the ground, skating just past the gun fire, slitehring out of the kill zone and darting away before it could traverse to reengage. Gyoza detonated his improvised mine but the angle was bad and the intervening wall absorbed much of the blast. Lot ended it by wrapping the fugitive in his power, lifting him clear of the motorcycle, which tumbled end over end down the pavement.

Now Slicer Dicer is suspended several feet above the street as the flames consume more and more of the building. Screams can still be heard inside from some of the camp followers who are still alive. As the samurai look upon Slicer Dicer, both of them experience memories they’ve never accessed before: they known this man. They’ve trained with him and fought with him – side –by-side. Then the memories fade to a cloudy blackness.

The building continues to burn . . .

AAR

The Trash File

“Here’s the thing. These goblins don’t know shit. they’re basically just turds with legs.”

Sylvan Information Run

So Lughaidh’s new job offer by missive was not particularly pleasing to the team. After all you can’t negotiate with a letter. Plus there was the tone. Ex cathedra pronouncements evidently do not engender feelings of joy and contentment in bottom-rung, gutter neo-anarchists. But he did offer 25K a head and that was enough to stow their misgivings for a while.

Lord Z3R0 spent some some time tracking down any mention of a Mr. Morlock on the Matrix and discovered, quite aside from the HG Wells references, that there was – in the 2050s and 60s – a fixer who went by Morlock and operated in Seattle. But most of the info on him suggested he was dead. Z3R0 also tracked down information on Laubenstein Plaza. Lot contacted McAllister since Rourke was off-limits and ordered an auto picker and a mag lock re-sequencer. Perses packed up his newly modded M202 and the three of them got in the van and headed to the parking garage and followed the instructions to the letter. Lot did take some time to a sense the special medallions they were directed to wear. He determined that they were some sort of high-end sustaining focus but he was unsure of the spell.

A little after midnight the team rolled out of the parking garage and headed down to the Plaza. There were very few people in the hotel bar and they were directed to go straight up to 15 where Mr. Morlock had taken the entire floor. When the elevators opened they were met by a gang of burly orks who gave him a bunch of bluster that Perses diffused with some polite, understated threats sending the tuskers on their merry way. Meanwhile Z3R0 was noticing that the wireless traffic in the hotel was incredibly limited even for this time of night. No RFID tags pointing out directions to bathrooms or elevators very limited wireless signals and almost nothing coming from the few hotel guests they can see. And the Wi-Fi that was set up for the hotel lobby itself seemed very outdated.

Up top they met Morlock and found him to be a pasty white dwarf dressed in purple with black and white lace. Understandably they thought him to be a vampire. Further probing and assensing however revealed this to be untrue. Lord Z3R0 tasked one of his agents to evaluate the wireless signals in the local vicinity the hotel. Again he noted that the number of signals was far too low and the software interface was very clunky and outdated. He attempted to access ShadowSEA or even Jack Point to find out what the problem was but he could not find them. Instead he found references to a website called Shadowland BBS which has been defunct for years.

The team then deduced that they had been sent back in time. The team further deduced that Lughaidh had outlived his usefulness and began to make plans to put him out of their misery (and how to best decorate their new apartment building). But there were still 25,000 at the end of it for each of them, and Morlock had agreed to pay them each 6000 up front and 8000 at the end of the job. So – after all – a job is still a job even if you’re guinea pig who’s been sent back in time.

They only had 24 hours to get back to the parking garage and presumably back to their own time so Z3R0 started building up some fake credentials for Perses to pretend he was an agent coming to look at the manuscript. The team rolled up – all entourage, belittling secretaries and browbeating poser elves named Elrand Gylgylad. Z3R0 uploaded the virus and smoked the chintzy outdated IC while Lot took command of Elrand’s mental faculties. Then the group of them walked out of the building with the manuscript in hand.

They headed straight back to the Plaza gave the book to the dwarf and collected their fee. Lot looked up his family in Denver and wired 12 grand to his dad. Perses on the other hand went straight to a bookie and, since it was only September 2050, he got 30 to 1 odds on the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl. He then hired an attorney to invest his winnings in Ares Arms stock and to only release those shares of stock to his biometric scan on January 1, 2072. All told they invested 30,000 at 30 to 1 odds making the winnings 900,000.

They jumped back in the van, went back to the parking garage and followed their instructions to the letter once more. When they drew back out of the lot they were in good old 2072 and went to the lawyer’s office to collect their shares of Ares Arms stock now valued at over ¥1.6 million.

Lughaidh may not be on their ‘to-kill’list anymore.

AAR

Things got dicey with KE given free reign to sniff the shadows for the perpetrators of that plane job. Invisibility was the word, so we all lied low for a bit. Hell, rumor said even the Bad Penny was tapped, which is why it was so shocking when Rourke was the one to flip over my rock.

He set up a meet with Mr. Johnson at Infinity. Not really my neck of the woods or my scene, for that matter, but if it was important enough to Rourke to break radio silence, it was important to me. I’m definitely not brave enough to cross a guy like the Bad Penny’s owner. Either everyone else was indisposed or had bigger rocks to hide under, so Rourke synced me with that Gilette he’s been high on lately. Suited me fine. I’m not a fan of going to a meet without muscle, even if it is the plastic kind.

Places like Infinity take precautions in regards to firearms, a fact which had our razorguy all verklempt. I rang up a buddy, and he came through with some ceramic implements. Anyone else, I’d owe a favor for sure. With Mac though, we have an understanding.

The hardware worked just as advertised on the box and we got in no problem. The Johnson was a tusker in a clown suit. Job was a retrieval of stolen data. Not a Matrix job though. Apparently, Mr. Johnson works for a record label. Someone busted in and snatched the only copy of a datadisk containing some b-sides from JetBlack, a skeleton rocker from my parent’s time.

Seemed like a waste of time for runners of our caliber, but then the troll mentioned the money. That they were willing to pay such a price showed the man was serious. On top of it, Perses was able to talk some more sense into the label stooge, increasing the payout. That bosozuki, metal as he may be, seems to have left some of his brain intact.

We were on the job.

I gave Mac another ring to ask if anyone had been trying to sell rare JetBlack tracks. He pointed me to a local ork thrash frontman who’d been laughing off an email he received advertising that sort of thing. Seems the email had been making the rounds. We decided to look up this ork musician. Nabo is his name if you can believe it.

Turns out his band had a gig that night just outside Touristville. Percy and I procured tickets and also worked out a way backstage to meet with our man. There isn’t much that hard drugs won’t buy you when it comes to ork ex-gangers. Or any gangers, for that matter.

The rocker arranged a meet for us with the senders of the email. We directed him to our turf, the same parking lot we passed along our recently acquired ghoul-bus. I setup in my spot, and Perses remained at ground level to make the meet happen.

A shitty Ford Americar SHO from the ‘50s rolled up, and a scrawny rube poked his head out. He was our man. Kerwin Loomis. Didn’t see a point in wasting time. I locked on to his thoughts, and, without even a struggle, he spilled his story. Turns out his dad had worked for the record label. Guy had got himself laid off and, in a fit of anger, took the disc. Fine. Sure. Whatever. His story didn’t quite pan out, but he had the original with him, so we didn’t care. We relieved him of his goods and paid him his continued existence in exchange.

At that moment, the opposition decided to show itself. Thugs approached from the south woods and turned guns on my man Percy. He was faster though, and so was I. Those he didn’t drop, I scrambled. One man, their leader, was left. We got what we needed out of him, and it didn’t even cost a spell. What did cost a spell was what we wanted. I don’t envy the man when he wakes. That said, I do have a slightly used set of cybereyes and wired reflexes for sale.

We got a hold of Johnson again. Met up and made the exchange. All in a day’s work.

So the team went to ground because Knight Errant and Gov. Brackhaven had just set up a new task force to track down the perpetrators of the Federated Boeing hijack. The team spent another month lying low. Rourke got word to them that he believed that the mega-corporation that was looking into them was making things too hot around the Penny. Rourke let them know that he would get in touch with them when he felt it was safe but for the meantime that they should use intermediaries and look for another fixer. Period so the team crashed at their flats sucking down soy products.

Lot and Perses got a call from a fixer named Smiley offering them some work.

Music Biz AAR

December 3rd, 2071:

The team had gone to ground for several weeks following the incident with Aztechnology’s secret lab and their evident efforts to strike at the team. Builder has not been seen since. His bike is still parked at the lot behind the Penny. Rourke got word to the team that Hands apparently was hit a few hours after they sold him the cryo-bus. the strike team was specifically after the bus and any cargo it may have contained. Hands is evidently quite displeased with the Lot and Clive.

While going through inventory at Queenie Beth’s, Lot was approached by a short, emaciated figure that seemed a bit out of sorts. The creature gave Lot a card, seemingly from a strange Tarot deck, and asked him and his friends to meet with his master at midnight for an apology and an offer of employment.

The team agreed to the proposal and drove to the address in the Barrens. There they found an old apartment tower rising fifteen stories from the center of a lot ringed by strip malls. The lot was inhabited by more of these stunted wiry creatures (which Lot identified as Goblins – a type of infected dwarf)The full moon and the mist rising from the ground gave the entire place a strange, otherworldly feel.

The were led inside by another goblin dressed in a waistcoat and fob chain, quite a bit apart from the rest they had seen. He took them up the only working elevator (apparently powered by a gas generator) to the 14th floor. They could see stars above them though no technology was apparent to create such an effect.

They were brought in to meet with Mr. Johnson, who introduced himself as Lughaidh. He apologized to Lot for the incident at the school and having been much harassed by the team, finally was able to offer them the work that he had brought them for. Lughaidh clearly came to dislike each of them, except for Lord Z3R0 who inexplicably kept his mouth shut the whole time.

Lughaidh asked them to eradicate a quasi-military gang in the barrens and agreed to pay them each 35,000 nuyen just to shut them up. The gang was called Hakeswill’s Marauders and let by a particularly odious fellow who called himself Colonel Hakeswill. Lughaidh asked that they be eradicated within seven days and that his mark, another strange Tarot Card, be placed on the forehead of each of the victims. The group left to plan the job.

They had been kicking around a few ideas and collecting imagery on the place when Clive piped up “why don’t we just crash an airplane into the place?” the table was quiet for a moment, then as discussion of more routine plans began again Lord Z3R0 said with a look of wonder “wait. Seriously. Can we do that?” and a new type of mayhem was born.

They began contemplating this attack in earnest and decided that it would be necessary to spoof any spiders or IC that might try to back track Z3R0 during the hijack. They contacted Rourke to see about getting a new agent to use as well as a better spoof program. Rourke assured them that he could get both at level 6 for a 10% mark up within five days. The team ultimately settled on a plan that involved stealing a fueled airliner from Federated-Boeing that was about to be flown to its buyer. Preferably the plane would be entirely empty, or at least minimally manned. Z3R0 began probing the Boeing matrix for holes in the firewall.

December 8, 2071:
After Rourke delivered on the Agent, the plan was set in motion. Lord Z3R0 hacked the military grade Node onto the plane itself. Apparently FB used the internal pilot program to taxi the aircraft around the tarmac. He cut inside the node, with none the wiser, then set about hacking he pilot program to disable the internal fail-safes controlling navigation. That finally did trigger an alert and several IC programs were launched to castigate the intruder. One began a trace and the new Agent immediately began spoofing.

Another launched a Black Hammer attack against Z3R0 but the hacker was ready for it and deflected it handily. Meanwhile, Z3R0 was uploading the plane’s new flight plan – directly into the old Redmond mansion that Hakeswill’s goons had taken as a residence. The Aircraft began to taxi and the IC began another attack. But before it could be completed, Z3R0 turned off the wireless link to the aircraft. he suffered some dumpshock, but the IC programs were not capable of re-programming the Pilot program and they simply rode as passengers, having driven the intruder from the node.

Pieced together from various reports and the surveillance that the team had on FB and the target, this is what happened: Security vehicles raced away from he main buildings to try to catch the plane. They were unsuccessful. Several small drones were dispatched to chase the jet liner but they were unarmed surveillance units. A pair of helicopters were also dispatched by they were only armed with light machine guns and targeted the fuselage – or perhaps their corporate masters were disinclined to shoot down so many million of nuyen worth of airplane. In any event, the liner lifted into the air on its way to its final destination spraying jet fuel behind it from the uncapped tank and the hose torn from the fueling truck.

At McChord Air Force Base, alert 5 fighters were scrambled, as well as from the USS Colin Powell but the jet liner was already over halfway to its target before they launched. Other Corporate military assets were scrambled as well throughout the Metroplex but they were defensive measures.

In Redmond, the team could see that Hakeswill had just come out onto the porch to bum a smoke off his minions stationed out there. As he took a drag he looked up into the night sky, then stooped forward, squinting his eyes. the cigarette fell from his lips as he flung men away from him scrambling towards the railing. He leapt over the rail, falling as if in slow motion as the moon highlighted the jetliner screaming towards the house.

He seemed suspended in mid-air as the nose of the plane punched through the front door at over 500 miles per hour. moments later the building disappeared in a flash of light and for a moment Hakeswill was seen rocketing through the air out over the broad lawn. Lot sent an air spirit to carry Lughaidh’s card around to all the bodies that could be identified, discharging tehir final covenant.

The News-faxes and shadow-feeds were all abuzz with speculation as to the incident and public outcry was strident, though at least it only crashed in the Barrens.

“This unprecedented¹ terrorist act has caused aviation authorities throughout North America to rethink their security procedures. Federated Boeing is now revamping its security policies to ensure that wireless capabilities are disabled unless pilots are also on board the aircraft. There has been speculation as to why such an audacious attack would have been directed at such an unimportant target as a abandoned mansion in the Redmond Barrens. Still no terrorist organization has come forward to claim responsibility for the attacks.”

Other News Stories of Interest:
Terrorist Aircraft Attack (December 8, 2071)
Governor Brackhaven initiates new KE Task-force (December 11, 2071)

¹ (The September 11 attacks never happened in the SR universe)

Jet Crash Run AAR