The Lost Asset Run Pt II / The Coming out of Retirement Run
Cast:
Philip Marlowe - Human Lone Star Detective
Vince White - Ork Gun-Adept
Kassen Pope - Born to an Ork family in the slums, Kassen was a shoe-in to join his brother Dawayne's street gang, assuring him a vicious, brutal, and short life as a drug peddling thug. Had it not been for an unfortunately slick piece of concrete that Pope encountered on a climb through the jungle of the slums that surely would have been his life. Instead the fall he took shattered his spine in three places, punctured several major organs, and left him bleeding to death. The boy's family scrapped what little they had to put him on life support and readied themselves to pull the plug when a mysterious benefactor offered some repairs at a heavily discounted price. The price was steep but doable, and just like that Kassen Pope got a new body. Ever since then the heavily modified ork has worked hard to pay back his family's sacrifice, even if that means he has to do some illegal work to pay the bills.
New NPCs:
Zeno- A talking bust of a Greek philosopher that only Philip Marlowe can see.
Background:
Vince White is bleeding to death after being dressed as an ork gang member and forced to execute a kidnapped 10 year old girl on camera. Philipe Marlowe is waiting for Renraku security or Lone Star to arrive to pick up the girl's remains and take his statement. Evan T. Garde is dead, shot by gangers and thrown in a nearby dumpster.
Story:
Kassen Pope has just completed a courier run in the Puyallup barrens when he sees a VTOL launching itself into the sky nearby. Curiosity getting the better of him, the Ork goes to investigate and sees a building littered with the remains of a biker gang. Smoke still rises from where heavy weapons detonated, and many of the ork gang members are still in the slow process of dying. Deciding that they probably have things that they won't need any more, he investigates inside.
What he discovers is a Philip Marlowe desperately trying to get Vince White's heart to keep from failing. By a coincidence (either lucky or unlucky) Pope knows Marlowe in his official capacity- Pope has been picked up by Marlowe several times due to Pope's brother's drug affiliations. After a quick assessment of the situation Pope decides to lend his help, offering his advanced first aid kit to Marlowe and offering to go get the car.
By the time Renraku security arrives on the scene Marlowe is left amid the bodies of the dead gangers covered in blood, White and Pope driving their way to Boas, an old friend of White's who knows some Shamanistic healing magic. Marlowe does a song and dance, explaining his pursuit of the kidnapped girl as part of an investigation, and he describes a gang fight that was occurring when he got here. He bitterly states that he didn't arrive in enough time to save the girl.
Eventually all of the runners make it to a safe house. With the help of Seraph, the group's hired hacker, White manages to make all of his property disappear as he creates a new SIN for himself. Pope lingers at White's new house, initially to make sure he isn't in trouble, then later because White's new place is much nicer than Pope's.
Philip Marlowe visits the father of the little girl at the Seattle Nanoworks corporate housing unit. The man, who by all accounts was once a brilliant computer programmer and nanotechnologist, is a broken shell after losing first his wife, then his daughter. Marlowe, officially the police officer who investigated the kidnapping and almost saved her from the hands of gang butchers, must endure in silence the man's half-hearted thanks for his efforts.
Astra contacts the runners and suggests to them that the running community isn't terribly excited about runners who botch the job so completely. The rumor mill is suggesting that one of the runners actually killed the girl. Astra's reputation being on the line, she's going to have to cut bait until the runners give her something she can use to clear their names in the community. She suggests, after hearing their side of things, that they get the unedited copy of what went down that the MCT security team must have.
The runners task Seraph to run down all leads regarding the MCT security team and the likely location of the data they are looking for. Seraph comes back with several hits, though after correlating flight communications in the area at the time with video feeds from a host of drones and cameras, the most likely are the MCT Madrona Park Towers, a trio of high-rises overlooking Lake Washington owned by MCT.
With White's miraculous magical healing abilities the team is ready to go to work (Pope, under the belief that there will be money to be made somehow in this assault on an MCT facility, goes along despite not needing his reputation restored). They tap their respective contacts, seeking to find out information about the building as well as the people who are inside it. They discover that the security team is simply too skilled to risk a frontal assault, and none of their contacts can provide information on floor plans or security.
While debating their frustration and inability to plan an approach, Marlowe takes a bathroom break only to appreciate that White apparently enjoys classical greek sculptures in his well appointed bathroom. Marlowe is taken aback when the statue addresses him, stating that it is Zeno and informing Marlowe that his team will receive a commlink shortly. In the commlink will be the information regarding the layout and security routines of the building they are seeking to enter, but in return they must connect the commlink to the stand-alone server inside the building (it will be marked on the map). Marlowe accepts the bust's offer and relates it to White. White points out that there is no marble bust of a Greek Philosopher, or indeed a marble bust of anyone, in his bathroom. Investigation by the assembled shadowrunners confirms this.
The commlink arrives as promised, and on it is the layout of the top several floors of Tower 3. The layout shows the offices, hangar, and living quarters of the security team the shadowrunners recently encountered, as well as a large stand-alone data haven. A discussion with Seraph concludes that the data haven is the likely place for the records to be, but the room itself is shielded. The runners will have to run a wire from the servers, through the heavy doors, and to a waiting transmitter or commlink in order for Seraph to remote in. A plan of attack begins to form.
Despite none of the shadowrunners knowing the first thing about flying, they unanimously conclude that it is possible to hang glide onto the roof provided they land in one of two areas where there are neither cameras nor other sensors to trigger. They purchase a tutorsoft and begin virtual flight training. Pope develops an infiltration plan to get by security (much of his plan using heavy explosives as a plan B). Marlowe calls in a favor from Astra- he needs a heads-up when the next big run against an MCT favored target is going to be so that he can be ready if MCT decides to send in its heavy hitting security team. Astra reluctantly agrees.
Astra alerts the runners a week later- the word in the community is that a team with more balls than brains is hitting a prime MCT target that night, and that has all of the ingredients for a major fiasco worthy of an MCT assault team. Marlowe, White, and Pope rent hang-gliders using a fake sin from a small businessman just trying to get by, and make their way up a nearby low security residential high rise.
After several hours of waiting the trio of shadowrunners, supported by their hireling hacker Seraph, watch a familiar VTOL launch out of the side of Tower 3. They give it a few minutes to head off into the Seattle skyline and then they launch themselves into the air, trying to duplicate what they've learned in VR. The flight is shaky, but in the end the super-human modifications/magical enhancements manage to carry them onto the roof of Tower 3.
Pope fails utterly to breach security on the roof. He claims this has never happened to him before, though his shadowrunning teammates afford no time to be disappointed by the poor performance. Instead they climb down the side of the building two floors to where the VTOL landing pad juts from the building and they prepare to breach the hangar door with cutting tools. Pope again points out that this never happens to him.
The shadowrunners breach the hangar only to encounter a flight mechanic. He is stunned unconscious. Marlowe and White begin checking the various rooms, eventually discovering an armory that contains White's old equipment as well as a couple of heavy weapons and what appear to be two MCT proto-type laser rifles. They secure these goodies as fast as they can. White finds a large case with a rocket launcher inside it.
Pope meanwhile rushes to the security door of the stand-alone server, disabling cameras as he goes. Knowing that it is only a matter of seconds before security detects the tampering he sets to work cracking the electronics on the lock. He is halfway through when a klaxon goes off.
The alarm convinces White that the rocket launcher isn't doing anyone any good in its case. He uses it to destroy the elevators leading up to the top floors, firing round after round into the various elevator cabling systems. As White does this, Marlowe rigs the emergency stairwell with explosives. White and Marlowe then set to covering the stairs with assault weapons.
As security streams up the stairs a flurry of weapons fire is exchanged. Marlowe detonates the explosives, killing dozens and destabilizing the building with the force of the blast. Sprinklers go off, smoke billows through the floors, and grenades and bullets are exchanged. Marlowe and White manage to suppress the assault temporarily, but each are wounded by the exchange and they are forced to pull back.
Pope cracks the security door and rushes inside, leaving two commlinks on the floor outside the door. He finds the console Seraph told him to go to, plugs a cable in and runs back outside only to be greeted by one of the decorative suits of Samurai armor that has removed itself from its glass case and drawn its sword. Realizing that is probably safe from the rigger controlling the suit if he stays in the shielded room, Pope hangs back. He and the robotic warrior realize simultaneously, however, that the two commlinks outside of the door are both vital and vulnerable. Pope begins firing at the samurai, but hits bullets have little effect.
Marlowe and White arrive just as the armor is about to crush the commlinks under foot. A hale of gunfire manages to unbalance the robot and drive it back, but it quickly recovers and lays in to Marlowe, slashing through his armor. Marlowe's biology, however, is more than capable of powering through the sword wounds and despite being pierced severely he, White, and Pope manage to cripple the robot through shear volume of hot lead.
Pope plugs the wires into the commlink and Seraph gets to work hacking. A second decorative suit of armor stirs in its glass case and Seraph announces he is done. Pope connects the second commlink and blows out one of the windows overlooking the hangar landing pad below- he, White and Marlowe prepare to jump down to their waiting hang gliders as security pursues them. The second commlink reports it is complete and Pope gathers it up.
The trio leap down to the landing pad below only to discover security forces have found their hanggliders. Rail turrets on the building and aerial drones are orbiting the chaos. The team needs a distraction.
Pope, having assumed that things were going to become chaotic and prepared accordingly, fires a grappling hook across to Tower 2 and hooks up three carbiners. As his teammates look on in confusion, Pope pulls out three inflatable sex toys painted black, uses their auto-inflate function, and attaches them to the cable line. Marveling at the brilliance of this distraction White almost misses Pope's recommendation that he fire his last remaining rocket into Tower 2 to make it look like they are heading over to the lower security Tower. White complies, blasting a hole in the side of the building and likely killing a large number of gawking wage slaves in the process.
The distraction pulls the eyes of enough security that the team manages to kill the guards on their hanggliders and prepare to make their exit. Drones tear into the inflatable sex dolls, popping them quickly, as the trio launch themselves into the sky. Seraph, however, informs them that the ruse is up and that the drones are bee-lining for the slow-moving shadowrunners, especially Pope who is struggling with his hang glider. Seraph attempts to hack the building rail turrets and manages to get one firing at the other long enough for Pope to get out of range.
Seraph can do little about the jet powered interceptor drones, however. The shadowrunners fire their guns in a futile attempt to ward off the aerial drones that being making raking machine gun passes at them, but each is wounded and their hang-gliders ravaged. Their plan was to make it to a Horizon entertainment metro-plex that enjoys extraterritoriality, but with each pass this goal seems more unlikely.
A lucky shot by White manages to stall one of the interceptors, and an unlucky pass by the second interceptor provides the breathing room the runners need to land in the multi-level parking garage on the Horizon facility (though Pope does not "land" so much as he "crashes into an SUV in a pile of torn cloth and bent aluminum tubing- and blood"). The trio manage to evade Horizon security long enough to pile into their waiting car, change clothes, and use their pre-purchased tickets to "The Azure Connection", a spy thriller playing a 1 AM. When it lets out they hop in their car and drive away.
The next morning the proprietor of "Hangglide Lake Washington" finds three tangled, shot up, and warped hang-gliders on his doorstep.
Seraph sorts through the data he grabbed and finds the raw video file. With it Astra can convince enough of the fixer community to back off bad-mouthing her runners to the Mr. Johnsons such that she can rehire them. Seraph also discovers a chemical formula that, if the research is to be believed, is a drug that acts as artificial essence, allowing people to have far more body modifications before they die. Finally, Seraph comes across a powerfully encrypted piece of data with a data bomb attached to it. He is reluctant to attempt a disarm as he thinks someone very skilled put the data bomb in place. Seraph meets the runners at a crab shack to hand over the commlink, revealing himself to be a gangly blonde-haired man in his early twenties. He is nervous the entire meeting and is unwilling to discuss events of the run in public, and quickly takes his leave of the runners.
Marlowe uploads the data on Zeno's commlink per instructions.
Astra is happy to act as fence for the chemical data, as well as the two proto-type laser rifles. A huge pay-day sits on the horizon...
