The Team has looted the armory of the onsite security team and now has:

4 sets of medium military grade armor with muscle Augmentation 2.
2 Gauss rifles
5 rating 5 ‘battle buddy basic’ military grade comlinks with rating 6 eccm. (these 5 devices are able to cut through the jamming to talk to each other).
60 rounds of Gauss rifle ammunition
12 power packs for the Gauss rifles (the military armor runs on its own chargeable source and will be good for approx. 6 hours.)

The team has also allied with the remnants of the azzie security team:
1 lieutenant, wage mage with badly injured fire spirit
1 sergeant, badly injured by grenade fir but stabilized
2 security goons, operational, one with military armor, the other with armored vest
2 technicians
1 Cyborg “Zippo” who is currently being fitted with weapons

The team encountered a Cyberzombie whose personality matrix appears to be crashing. they sent him downstairs to find ice cream. They heard considerable gunfire and screaming from the second level.

Gyoza was injured by heavy cannon fire from the elevator shaft apparently fired by a drone left by Kreiger. The team has dropped smoke grenades into the shaft and is otherwise formulating a plan of ingress.

H+ :23

Clive and Lord Z3R0 have rejoined the rest of the team. Lord Z3R0 may be suffering from some sort of mania as he plays with his assault rifle and revels in this new feeling of being out of the van.

The initial QRT (Quick Reaction Team) sent by Aztechnology was knocked out by a second bomb in the main elevator shaft. Clive freed himself and then snuck down and ‘rendered harmless’ the survivors of the bomb. Z joined him. They began exploring the hidden facility, looking for their friends, when moments later they heard a new klaxon sounding. The doors to the ghoul ring were opening!

They scrambled through another set of airlocks and found their team mates, along with some new additions a SF operator-type named Dodd who looked a little worse for wear, and a pair of neo-anarchist hippie terrorists, named Flowers and Ratchet. The NA types seemed a bit out of their league, Dodd seems competent, but injured from previous encounters.

Dodd inormed the team that his group infiltrated the facility through the ventilation shaft with a man named Kreiger who was running his own op within theirs. Kreiger killed Fezzik and went down to the lower levels himself, with the aid of a small army of drones. Dodd fled with the remains of the team to the medical wing to catch a breather.

Now the team has moved south to take control of a lab to see if they can fabricate some ECCM (Electronic Counter Counter Measures) to deal with this high end jamming that’s fraggin’ up their commlinks. They engaged the remnants of an internal security team with a mage and a couple technicians. They have been locked into the central room at the south end of the main level. Their casualties are indeterminate.

Kreiger is believed to be on the 3rd floor. The Azzie protocol is to nerve gas the entire facility in 24 hours if they haven’t regained control by then.

Z3R0 has accessed the following systems:
Cameras – many were damaged or without sufficient power. only a few on the main level were working.
Doors – Zero has accessed most of the doors on the main level
Power – Z has shut down power to the doors in the entire facility after shutting all doors on the main level.
Maps of the Secret Facility

November 6, 2071 ShadowSEA Commentary

So the run initially went off without a hitch. The team successfully infiltrated Clive onto the security detail and he successfully gassed the whole guard detachment. The rest of the team gained access to the site and Lord Z3R0 successfully spliced the biometric reader on the manager’s computer. Clive kept watch on a strange explosion to the south east and the rest of the team explored the secret elevator in the med clinic’s cooler.
That’s when things got a bit hairy.

After the elevator reached its destination, alarms went off upstairs. Clive went to check the security room and saw a bunch of people on the screens yelling onto their video pickups. Most were suits or uniforms, but he also saw one in a labcoat who was subsequently torn apart by autofire, moments before the screen went blank. Clive feigned inability to hear the suits and then flashed the a note about beating his kids. Memorable.

In the ‘basement’ the team was just getting ready to head back up the lift, when there was an explosion above. Debris rained down on the lift and the team scrambled out. That exit was destroyed. Lot opened a heavy rolling door with his magic, only to be accosted by ghouls. Lot was injured but Gyoza and Builder killed the ghouls while Lot resealed the door.

The team then found a secret hatch into an underground facility. At the end of the access corridor was a dual heavy MG mount that looked like it had been powered down. There were bodies in the corridor that had clearly been shredded by those guns.

Lot assensed each of the two doors leading away from the abattoir. The passage to the right had a ghoul at the end, beyond a partially open door. The team went left. The found a lab with another ghoul eating someone in a labcoat. Gyoza ended the ghoul with a grenade. Lot then assensed the door to the left and found three metahumans holed up inside. The one with a longarm opened the door a little and shouted, “who’s there?”

Up above, a QRT unit fast roped into the space between the door and the yard with the van. Lord Z3RO hightailed it and Clive has been zip tied. The new agent has been loaded into the security computer and the slushy drone is hiding in the damaged elevator as a wireless link to the team below.

“Are you frackin aztech employees? because if you are then we’re here to eliminate you.

If not then we are your backup. We’ve got some aztech assault troops bearing down on this room and could really use some more firepower in here." Gyoza

“Damn it, Gyoza. What did I tell you? The first survivors we find, and you have to try and scare them? It wasn’t funny in the last job, and it isn’t funny now. “Hi there. We’re here to help. We’ve been tasked with bringing out survivors, but we’d almost gotten to the point where we thought we weren’t going to get paid. Until we found you three, that is. “Problem is, we’re a bit lost. We can provide the firepower to get you out of here in one piece, but we’re going to need one of you to provide direction. What do you say?” Lot

“Alright, now I’m confused. Are you guys azzies or what? You’re certainly not ghouls.” Dodd

> >To Gyoza: “Shit. See what you did?”
> > To the guy: “Of course we’re not Azzies. We’re hired help. We’re also lost as hell. I have a question for you: Do you want to get out of here or not? Seems a pretty simply choice. There may be a dead ghoul in here, but I have no doubt he’s got buddies. I’ve seen some of them, and I’d like to get moving before they figure out there’s more dinner. So how about you lower your piece and we can talk face to face.” Lot

“Alright. I’m opening up.” A few moments later the door rolls completely open. Behind it you see a man in black hi tech fatigues with a tricked out battle rifle and LBV (Load Bearing Vest). He looks a little worse for wear but he’s on his feet. Behind him are two very shaken individuals. They are wearing OD fatigues from the vietnam era. one (female) has a small pistol on a belt and a large bag with a red cross on it. The other (male) has an SMG and several packs which look to be stripped down toolkits. “I’m Dodd. these two are Ratchet and Flowers.” he gestures at the two people behind him. we definitely want to get the hell out. This run is hosed and our own ‘leader’ tried to scrag us. how did you get in? I thought all the exits had been sealed to prevent the QRT’s from getting down here." Dodd

“Hmmm… Ratchet. Flowers. Builder, either of those names on the, uh, list? You know. The List.” Lot

“Yeah. They’re on here. But how are we gonna get out?” Builder

“Good. Good. That’s good for them. Good for us. Alright, Dodd. You’ve heard my companions’ names. Mine is Lot. If we got in, there’s a good chance the QRTs can get in. Any recommendations on a possible exit?” Lot

“Well Kreiger thought up this whole scheme, but its clear he was playing everybody, so he must have his own agenda – and escape plan. When we tumbled to the bull he was spinning, he just wasted Fezzik, then went down the lift with those drones of his. We dove for cover then a few seconds later we were under fire from internal security. A few seconds after that, ghouls were everywhere, eating everybody. I grabbed up these two eco-rangers” he snorts derisively over his shoulder "and then high tailed it out. We holed up here to catch a breather, then heard the grenade in the lab.

“this place is supposed to have three underground floors. of course that information came from Kreiger so I don’t know how reliable it is. I do know that he was worried that the QRT’s would get here before we were done, so he took steps to block the three exits he told us about – the elevator to the factory, the ventilation shaft, and the tunnel to the sub hangar.” he scowls "part of what put us onto his bullshit was how cagey he was about the exit strategy if the QRT’s were all over us. Still it stands to reason that he did block all the exits that the azzies know about, but this place used to belong to the feds, supposedly, so maybe there is another exit the azzies never tumbled to?

“In any event ”/campaigns/basement-shadowrun/characters/kreiger" class=“wiki-content-link”>Kreiger would know about it, and he’s on the lowest floor i think. but whatever we do, we need to get moving. Apparently Aztech’s protocol, if they lose control of this place, is to nerve gas the whole thing 24 hours after loss of control. I don’t want to be here to test that bit of intel." Dodd

Meanwhile, up above the chaos….

“Oh mercy me, worst first day ever,” Clive mutters aloud. “This is one fine pickle for Mr. Jimmy Jimston, yessiree. Oh shoot, not cross at you boys…just doin’ yer job. Hey, hey you. Yeah, the handsome fella,” Clive bobs his head at the closest security specialist, “can you make sure these pizza coupons don’t slip outta my pocket? Hate to lose em’. Shit, we’ll all be friends one day and I might need em’.” Clive considers all the lost opportunities to purchase a dental tooth cyanide delivery system.

“hey Sarge. Get a load of this guy.”
“cut the chatter red 2.”. The sergeant listens intently for a moment. "alright. They want us to infil. They don’t want the intruders to have any more time to fort up. Have to keep the pressure on ‘em.
“get your rappelling gear. We’re going in."

“Hey, far be it for me to tell you guys how to do your job, I mean, you guys do know what you’re doing and I just wanna help…but please don’t make me go down that hole with you, please. I mean, I’m claustrophbic just thinkin about it and (drumroll……..) I really got to get back to beatin’ my kids soon….so, can’t you just get me to your headquarters and out of your hair. Ya see, I’m sure I could maybe remember the face of the guy that punched me and help differentiate him from any others out there, but listen…actually ya know what? Imma just gonna lay real real still for a while and let you fine boys do your job. (Clive whistles a popular Seattle pizza place’s theme song in an attempt to subconsciously make them hungry for pizza)

“I dunno, whadday think sarge?”
“Screw this frag face. the second team can handle him. We gotta get in there or our butts are fried. Now Move-it!”

The QRT troops, all in military style uniforms W/ integral armor and LBE’s and an assortment of weapons up to LMG’s and drum fed grenade launchers begin rappelling into the hole. Moments later you hear:
“Hey what the hell is that? did that junction box move?”
“Holy Shit! Drop Drop Dro . . . KABLOOM!”

The floor throws you up into the air then caresses you harshly as you slam back down onto it (body resist 2 boxes of stun damage). Smoke and dust are floating up from the shaft. your ears are ringing (do you have sound dampeners?) so you’re not sure whether you can hear any screams from down below.

Once you are finally free, you can look down the shaft and you see more pockmarks and cratering. In addition you see broken bodies lying atop the remains of the elevator car. It looks like there is a blood smear inside the car itself going out into the main room. You see no movement, just smoke and dust clogging the air in the shaft, and flickering red lights emanating into the remains of the car from the room below. The rappell gear is still attached. It’s impossible to determine how damaged any of it might be form here. There are clearly weapons on the bodies of some of the men below.

you slide on down the shaft. A few small bits of debris occasionally drop past you, but nothing else moves. You definitely hear moaning and groaning down below now. As you get to the ruined top of the elevator car, you see several assault rifles amongst the bodies, as well as a few sidearms still holstered. no one has noticed your presence as near as you can tell. There are three dead bodies on the top of the car. You hear voices from the room off the shaft.

“come on sarge. Hang in there. QRF 6 this is QRT15. come in over.
“Hang in there sarge.
“QRF this is QRT. We have severe casualties. Respond!
“Goddammit! Jenkins stay with me now. You too sarge!
“Base this is QRT OVER!”

the azzie trooper keeps repeating similar things, with mounting frustration.

Z3R0 walks away . . .

then he looks back over his shoulder and sighs and starts to make his way back to the security building.

1100 hours, Nov 2, 2071.

So, it is now November. Rent is due again. The team has made a bit of a name for itself dealing with clandestine work. The team has totally healed up and trained up on some new skills and bought some new gear.

In fact Gyoza and Builder nearly got smoked by Lonestar and their ‘law enforcement through mobile gun platforms’ philosophy. But they did get away, even though at least one of the gun dealers didn’t.

Now the team has been hired by a fellow working for Aztechnology for 10k, (5k upfront) and the ability to download 50k of ‘petty cash’ while on site. The job is to swap a blood sample for another one, and it needs to get done before 8am Monday morning. Its not quite noon on Saturday.

time for some planning against a real corporate site.

Karma:

Builder – 1 for surviving the cops, 1 for learning that motorcycles have little cargo space,

Gyoza – 1 for surviving the cops, 1 for learning that motorcycles have little cargo space,

Lord Z3R0 – 1 for wrecking the gunrunners van, 2 for figuring out the dangers of ubiquitous cameras, 1 for planning to do something about it,

Lot – 1 for ordering pizza and watching Run Shadow Run, 1 for offering the use of the car

Clive – 2 for surrogate use of people skills

October 14th, 2071,

As the team was pondering the implications of the spy drone they had captured, Builder and Clive detected movement in the buildings to either direction. They suspected that they had been lured into a trap and decided to simply try to bull their way out of it. With the crate loaded, the team piled back into the van. Clive put the pedal to the metal and the van lurched forward. Lot created a globe of force around the fire-team to the east as the van headed in that direction. A moment later, a bullet creased the hood of the van.

Clive swung the van hard to the left, throwing the team around in the back. Z3R0 used an RFID eraser on the tags in the crate and Lot turned the entire van invisible. Moments later a Steel Lynx combat drone burst through the warehouse and brought its .50 cal HMG to bear.

It began to spray in a wide arc, but Clive was johhny on the spot with the driving skills and he managed to dodge all the incoming fire. Just then Clive noticed more bullet impacts in the intersection ahead from another fire-team to the west. Lot force cast another spell forcing the team to throw their weapons out the window. Gyoza turned his directional jammer on the lynx and its motions became far more mechanical. Builder leaned out the window and engaged the drone with his LMG, shredding one of its legs and causing it to flip onto its turret. A bullet punched through the windshield above Lot, lodging in the floorboard of the van – and then they were through the ambush.

Clive jammed the acceleration and sped glacially away from the firefight. Within seconds the team was being pursued by a Range Rover that was quickly overtaking them. A man appeared through a hatch in the roof and snapped off two rounds from an MGL-112 grenade launcher. one of the grenades caused minor damage to the van and then Gyoza fired a round from his Ruger Super Warhawk through the back window. The heavy revolver caused fluid to spurt from the engine of the pursuing truck, then Lot created another barrier behind the team’s van. The SUV tried to swerve, but plowed into the barrier, totaling the SUV.

The team E&E‘d back to Lorenzano’s without further incident and delivered the goods, receiving 5k nuyen and two magical foci, as promised.

Yet another run under their belts.

October 13th, 2071

So the Team was unsuccessful in infiltrating the warehouse by stealth, but was able to hack the Customs database and found the access code necessary to retrieve the cargo. That portion went off without a hitch, but the team soon realized that they were being followed. They lost the tail (thanks to some mind control by Lot – and ‘running silent’ das boot fashion-but with trucks) in an abandoned factory near the wharves, and hid the crate just in case.

October 14th, 0100 hrs

Having returned to collect the crate, Lord Z3R0 popped up the signal ‘periscope’ for a moment and discovered that one of the tracking vehicles was still nearby, but in the wrong direction. So the team headed to the factory and recovered the crate from its hiding place. It was at that point that they noticed an electronic dragonfly hovering about. Gyoza jammed its signal quickly and Lot captured it with his magic and shut off its transceiver. If it got off a signal before the capture though, the bad guys could be coming down on the team in seconds.

What to do, what to do . . . ?

The Team hired a expat brit rigger named Cotterto take them down to the waterfront in his ‘fishing boat.’ The team went down to the docks to scope out the warehouse they were going to try to liberate the shipment from. They discovered that the warehouse had significant security measures, and Lord Z3R0 lost his fly-spy drone to a hunter killer drone.

Lord Z3R0 spent 1500 for a new ‘sniffer’ program.
Lord Z3R0’s fly spy drone was destroyed.
Team spent 1000 on cotter’s transport services.

In the interest of summation, here is the Jobless in Seattle Email log for reference if necessary.

OCT 9, 2071

-1746 HRS

Clive’s Lonestar contact came through with the plates on the van that the team saw leaving the strip mall. The van was registered to a local low-life that was wanted in connection with a Tamanous cell (body part smugglers). Lord Z3R0 was able to find his commlink and use its own GPS to track it. The team moved in on the site which turned out to be an old warehouse built into the side of a hill, with a top-down loading gantry/catwalk.

Lot astrally assensed the locale and discovered that there were a bunch of humanoid paracritters fenced in between the warehouse and the hill. At least one of which was dual-natured and spotted Lot. In addition there was a new-build roadway on the hill top leading to the other end of the loading gantry which appeared to be an office of some sort.

The team did a quick planning session and decided on a three prong approach. Gyoza scaled the warehouse while Builder circled through the scrub to the office. Lot returned to the warehouse astrally, discovering that there were at least 5 other chop shop targets unloading bodies from a truck. Lot handled them, causing them to start firing on each other, effectively killing 4 of them and causing the last to flee.

Meanwhile Builder infiltrated the office though the back of a refrigerated truck, discovering that there were 2 dark clad bad guys standing over a surgical table which had somebody on it all cut open. There was also a troll with a ballistic shield and a medium machine gun standing by the gantry. He appeared to be ‘turned off.’ the was a fourth guy in the room but he was lounging in a chair around the corner and not very visible. Builder attached his commlink to the truck and had Lord Z3R0 pull it away from the loading dock. Builder then opened up with his LMG, shredding the legs of the guy in the chair and bouncing rounds off the troll. the two figures by the table darted for cover very quickly then dashed down the gantry. Lot had already left by then, having finished off the threat inside the warehouse.

the fence gates were opened and the ghouls were freed, but they cowered in the shadows, refusing to come out int he sunlight. a turbocharged car sped away without anyone getting a good look, while builder poured fire into the troll. Gyoza joined the fight and grenaded the room from above. something threw the commlink out of the truck and it started to drive itself. Builder finished the troll before it could come fully ‘online’ and the two of the m regained control of the truck.

Another 50 rounds of LMG fire finished off the ghouls, though Lot killed two with his MP-5. The team then captured the leader of the warehouse crew and the driver of the original van. They discovered that the guys holding the big rig had sold the crew to the chop-shop guys and the crew was still alive upstairs, stacked with several other bodies, who were undercover behind a surgical table and survived the firefight and grenades.

The team has completed its mission, bloody though it was.

October 9, 2071 – 1535hrs

The Bread Run Setup

The team, through various (and largely unpleasant) means tracked the location of the missing truck within three hours of the assignment. On the way to scope out the location (an abandoned strip mall in the north stretch of the barrens) they noticed only one other vehicle, another van, headed south, away from the mall. Clive put in a call to one of his buddies to trace the plates and is waiting to hear back.

The team made one pass for reconnaissance, then dropped Builder and Gyoza off to recon the back parking lot. They infiltrated through the scrub brush and found the truck, jack knifed behind the mall, with the cab pulled in between two loading ramps. There was another GMC Bulldog van parked about 12 meters north of it, and three armed men standing nearby. Two were talking near the passenger door of the van and the third was by the passenger door of the truck. One had a pair of Ares Predator IV’s in holsters. Another had an Ingram Smartgun and the last had an AK 97. Thermographic imaging indicated that there was another man inside the van, but there was no sign of the missing crew members.

Builder opened fire with his LMG, ripping into the men by the van.

Gyoza rushed the other man standing by the truck, cutting badly him with his katana. The wounded man retreated, firing wildly at Gyoza. The rest of the team deployed at the southwest corner of the strip mall and charged into the fray.

Gyoza finished off the wounded pistoleer, just as he made it into the drover’s seat of the van, by running several feet of steel through his torso. Adding insult to injury, his predator ejected its own magazine. Gyoza could now see the last man in a sort of modified dentist’s chair in the back of the van. at the same time, Clive was sliding on his knees (doing wonders for his pants) under the trailer of the truck. moments later the van deployed a heavy machine gun from a hidden compartment on an articulated arm – pointing right at Clive.

Builder opened up on it with his LMG, damaging the belt feeder system, then Lot encased it in a globe of energy. Clive finished the threat by firing two rounds from his AK into the man in the chair, geeking the slot-head.

Now the team has control of both the van and the truck, but the crew is still missing. How long ahve they been gone for? where were they taken? are they even alive? tune in next time to find out!