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