Shadowrun: In Media Res

[Shrike]

’What do we do with him?? Keep him or frak him?? The shaman is in my trunk for now.”

Shrike toggles his comms to respond; at least they aren't automatically killing everybody. Bodes well at least

"Keep him. The Star are a lot more interested in you if there are bodies involved. Nobody has died so far tonight, so lets not start now. Bushwack, secure the decker, but chuck his deck to Tulpa. See what he can find out what these low rent mercs were doing."

"Mea Culpa Mulpa for mistaking you with Tulpa. Call me a dumb Trog again and we will see if you are still so much smarter than me when you are deader than me and your brain is bashed into bloody pulpa."

Shrike sighs maybe I thought too soon.

"We're on the job people. Keep it professional. Any issues, deal with them after the job!" his voice is firm, but not intimidating.

However, as they pass the real restroom, they both hear someone whimpering and trying to be quiet even though they are panicking. It's a woman or maybe a terrified teen. They may be saying something like, "They can't get me, they can't get me, not again...not again..." through sobs and whimpers.

He sees Mulpa go to the restroom door and nods to the dwarf. Whilst the others are engaged, he walks over to where the unconscious decker is and after a few seconds of looking, picks up the damaged deck.

"Tulpa, I have a damaged deck for you," he sniffs it and balks, "you probably don't want to think about what was in the trash judging by the smell."

[Mulpa]

*Over comms*

"Mea Culpa Mulpa for mistaking you with Tulpa. Call me a dumb Trog again and we will see if you are still so much smarter than me when you are deader than me and your brain is bashed into bloody pulpa."

<vague Russian insults and indiscriminate growling>

*Over Coms*

• *In Russian*Stupid is as stupid does. Enough of that, though. We are on a mission. We can talk about this later over a few shots of vodka, if needed.

Mulpa turns his attention to the resident of the latrine.

"Those guys that were after you have been dealt with by some other customers. Now I need to do some work in there, and that means I need to get you somewhere safe. The gasses released from my work will not be good for you... and less so for your little one. I don't have a mask for myself, but it won't fit an orc."

Con (Fast Talk) 3

Con = 9 + 2 (Fast Talk)

[Wraith]

Location: Outside target warehouse, Tacoma, Seattle Metroplex
Status: 3 Stun boxes (-1CM)

Wraith spend perhaps a minute eyeing the tall wall, the barbed wire at the top, as well as the small animals here and there. Letting out a slow breath, she re-activates the sub-vocal mic, ignoring the bickering to focus on the work.

"The wall surrounding the warehouse complex is topped with barbed wire, which I am pretty sure is electrified," she starts, still studying the security measures in place. "There are also a fairly large number of cameras, I see one at the top of each of the posts. Can you nullify them, Tulpa?"

Quickly, the foxelf goes over the items she had brought along with her - not a lot with the very short notice for the job, unfortunately. 'Nothing I can use to prevent myself from being electrocuted unfortunately... not even rubber gloves,' she reflects, stifling a sigh.

While waiting for a response Wraith remains tucked away in the alley across from the south side of the warehouse, watching the area; she also takes the time to put on the reload slides and small waist-pack containing the more important bits of her kit, then attaches the survival knife sheath to the back of her belt, in reasonably easy reach. The rest of the stuff, much more mundane in nature, are stored in the messenger bag, which is concealed behind a couple of broken pallets.

OOC Comments

Perception rolls
Visual 11D6:
Audio 11D6:

[Tulpa]

: 1 Success

[/roll]

: 2 Successes

• Cram*: +2 reaction, +2d6 initiative
• Psyche*: +2 Intuition, +2 Logic
  *Narco enhances effects

Create File(s): 10 dice pool:2 auto-successes

Inside the Honey Bucket, Tulpa happily hacks away. In moments he has brutally dominated the other hacker and his 'deck. Suddenly however, the deck goes silent, silence accompanied by a revving engine, a squeal of tires, a thump against his shelter and the unmistakable thump of a limp body hitting the ground.

Seeing his targets icon go blank, Tulpa balks. Fuck. Is he onto me?

Bangs the industrial toilet hard enough for it shake. (The sound inside must be deafening )

Fuck. He is. Tulpa switches his interface to AR and readies his pistol before he bursts out of the giant port-a-potty, ready for anything. He points his pistol at Bushwack with a scream of terrified rageat the figures he sees looming in the alleyway until he recognizes one of them to be Mulpa. He lowers his pistol slowly. ”We good?” He looks around again, on edge. His pupils are wide behind the yellow tint of his AR glasses and his face is damp with perspiration.

"Mulpa. Get yer pecker inside your pants up and get out you perv. That decker you were playing with is dumpshocked by my fist. Get out so we can lock him and that shaman in this toilet. Help those guys get in the compound. If you wanna sleep and drool and because your playing matrix games you can do it from the comfort of Gnat's car.Muuuu-uuuulllllllppppppppppppppaaaa"

Tulpa looks at the Orc, at first threatened by the biug brute, and then flummoxed. ”You are talking to me, right? The dwarf wasn’t in there with me.” Tulpa looks behind him into he port-a-potty just incase he forgot.

"Bushwack, ya dumb Trog... how many times do I need to remind you... Tulpa is the bloody human decker. Mulpa, aka me, is a Dwarf. Even from way up there you should be able to tell the difference. I will see who is in the other latrine that is trying to escape... that person is who you they may have been after... there may even be a payday in it for us... from either the target or THEIR Mr. Johnston. Tulpa, I can also grab the deck that wannabe was using, if you'd like. Now I will see what I can do with talking to the rabbit in the other latrine..."

That’s right. Mulpa is in my ear… not the toilet.He looks at Bushwack with a flat face. ”I’m Tulpa. The handsome one. Mulpa is the mean one.” Tulpa says slowly.
Seeing the crumpled form of the decker laying against the plastic bathroom wall, Tulpa will smirk, his attention drifting from Bushwack. ”The punk didn’t even know what happened.” He chuckle. Tulpa bends down and begins going through the deckers pockets. If the deck that slid into he garbage pile is noticed, Tulpa will reach for it in interest, looking at what sort of gear the ganger was running with. Any deck would be better than this comms unit. Tulpa admits grudgingly to himself; he had a certain fondness for his Himitsu, even if it was mechanically worse than some of the cheapest decks on the market, and cost more. Tulpa had spent a lot of time making sure his lunchbox of a commlink could get be passable in some minor Matrix work. He will slide the Erika into his messenger bag, planning to work on it later.

Tulpa will look up and around, the drugs coursing through his system giving him a moment of laser like focus. "Shrike is right. Lets focus on why we are here and not these distractions. The warehouse is on a closed system. I wont be able to connect to it remotely. I suggest we disable a camera and enter the warehouse physically. I might be able to access the Warehouses Host onsite. If not, we will complete the assignment without Matrix Overwatch.” Using his AR interface, Tulpa does create a number of new files on his Hitachi, each a video file, actively recording any of the feeds his team gave him access to.

"The wall surrounding the warehouse complex is topped with barbed wire, which I am pretty sure is electrified," she starts, still studying the security measures in place. "There are also a fairly large number of cameras, I see one at the top of each of the posts. Can you nullify them, Tulpa?"

As he is talking, Tulpa begins making his way towards the Warehouse wall itself, all but forgetting about the tussle with the gangers. Knowing the layout of the cameras, Tulpa stays out of the line of view and begins looking for one that might be easier to target than any others. He will attach the silencer to his gun and he observes the wall. ”I can shoot out one of the cameras from here.” He offers to any others who regroup at the edge of the warehouse. ”Well… Now that I am closer…”Maybe Tulpa will attempt one more time to discover the icon for a camera or the electrical fence itself in the Matrix.

: 3 successes

[Muppet Man]

And I been this way since day one // I don't need no medication // No, I don't need no drug // Or maybe I'm different, and maybe my ADHD got me trippin' // And maybe I'm just everything that you missin', yeah

//Location:Tacoma/Seattle Metroplex/UCAS
//Time: <2235:00/2075-01-05> Combat Over
//Weather: <Heavy Downpour, 5.6C, Wind SE 22kph, feels like 0C>
//Air Quality: <Moderate (Yellow), Precipitation pH 3>

Gnat has no issues dragging the damaged dwarf to his car and plopping the dead weight in the trunk. The sad sack runner is heavy, but not heavy for a dwarf.

Bushwack expounds and cajoles. Banging on the plastic john creates a nice overwhelming acoustic for the poor sucker sitting inside.

Good natured banter always involves racial slurs, so that's cool, right? Well Mulpa a Bushwack clear a couple things up while actually moving the plan forward, maybe incidentally.

Shrike does his part to be sensible and finds the enemy decker truly unconscious out side. The whole left side of his face is bruised and cut from contact with Bushwack and his arm is bent in a funny direction. Yeouch!

Mulpa's unassuming appearance and tool box might be the key to his success, because his repair-person patter may leave a little to be desired. However, he did say the magic words "those guys have been dealt with". The young woman stares and him for a second then bolts past him (it's a tight fit, orc+pregnant+dwarf+tight hallway is quite a squeeze). She looks around and sees the troll sized human standing over a thug and the other thug seemingly frozen in a limp neutral pose. She decides still to head out the back. With nary a think you or an oh my god you're amazing, she runs (with a little waddle, you know, her "condition").

Staggering out of the Original Decker Sanctuary (tm, copyright, copyleft, copy up, copy down) Tulpa scrounges. Shrike hands him the broken deck. Tulpa recognizes it as an entry level model, and that it's not broken beyond repair. It will require tools to repair it though. Inside the punk's (in no way would anyone call him a decker) pockets he finds a few surprising items: gum, a 13 nuyen, a Renraku Sensei commlink, 5 clips of heavy pistol ammo, and a brand new Ares Predator V. He is wearing an armored best, but it's under his jacket and would take a lot of effort to take off.

Do Unto Others, and Loot the Bodies: Bonus 1 edge! for Tulpa

The work to swap out Tulpa in the can for the goons goes quickly. It tips over at Bushwacks urging with a satisfying bang and slosh. It, shock of shocks, turns out to be an illegal pit toilet, and a 4m deep hole full of excrement is exposed to the world. It's fairly covered in flies. The stink would probably light up like a roman candle if anyone lit a match.

Meanly, in an alley nearby...

The city is by no means quiet. There are cars zipping around spewing cheap biofuel exhaust into the night. The rain patters all around banging on the corrugated metal roofs in the alleys or every now and then dumping off with a big splash from an overloaded blue tarp (they're not all blue of course, they run the gamut from yellow to brown to green to those fancy silver crinkly ones). There is the occasional noise of shouting or screaming. Distant gunfire too, this is Tacoma after all. Ships' horns honk out in the canal. But Wraith is focused on the warehouse. While it maybe that she's seen all that she can see, her sensitive ears pick up something interesting. There is an occasional chuff or growling from inside the compound. Two distinct "voices", almost certainly canine in nature moving at random throughout the warehouse compound.

Big GM assumption: everyone regroups at warehouse (whether with Wraith or nearby)

Things move fast on 2075, so between the Stuffer Shack incident and the team regrouping at the warehouse complex only a few short minutes have passed.

What do you do now?

[Bushwack]

Bushwack revs up the trollhammer dashes past the damsel in distress and cuts her off.

"Right. Here's a credstick. Active balance, 202,5 Nuyen. My lunch money, my life savings my pension plan and my stock portfolio included."

There is plenty of irony but no bitterness in Bushwacks voice. Money is always a means never an end. Easy come, easy go.

" Should get you a decent bed for the night, a hot meal, a new set of cheap clothes and a commlink to call in that friend or that favour. If absolutely positively nobody comes to mind here is my number. The name's Yuri, chummers call me Bushwack. You are not a chummer of mine. The other number is a Doctor. Doc Poe. He is a jacked up dopefiend but a kind heart and has had proper medical training even if lost his licence. If you tell him I will square your debt he will do right by you whatever your decision is.

Grabs her by the wrist forcefully with the vintage cyberarm and hisses menacingly

Whatever you do, don't be babbling about me helping you in the hour of need. A soft heart is a worse condition than a class jaw , a slow hand or yesterday's ware in my line of work, and i already have one of those three.

Go !"

Bushwack slams a credstick in her palm and drives off where the group is gathering without awaiting a reply.

[Muppet Man]

Micro Update (totally as cool as a microvan)

BUSHWACK CHARITY CASE
Maybe a troll throwing money at strangers is not seen as a stereotypical trait, so the fugitive is at first a surprised at this wholly unexpected outcome to a hellish night. She grunts what’s probably a thank you. She gathers herself, putting on a show of dignity. Then racing off into the night she vanished from Bushwack’s world, now he can get on with the real business of the evening.

Mark down ork mystery woman as a contact, stats unknown currently (by you at least)

TULPA TIME
Paranoia is a stereotypical trait of Shadowrunners. Conventional wisdom is that the heightened sense for danger keeps them alive. But does it, on the flip side, make these edge runners jump at ghosts?

Well, let’s see how Tulpa reacts to a ghost. The Tacoma public grid sucks. Tulpa is in close physical proximity to the lights and other identified security at the target warehouse. He has little lag or interference, but still he finds no icons on the grid.

Maybe he sees another persona poking around though. They are fuzzy and trying to sneak in and are most likely doing the same thing he is. Or, maybe it’s nothing.

[Bushwack]

Bushwack returns to Tulpa, invites him on the heavy motorbike in the passenger seat to join his fellow runners wherever they were holing up taking cover from the downpour just out of the peripheral field of vision of the camera.

He imagines their eyes burning on him for messing up the names (not the first time); and maybe Tulpa saw his interactions with the ork lady?

"Better to take it straight into the offense" he thinks

"While I was bribing witnesses what good have you lot been doing ? I am not afraid to try and jump the fence. I could jump it from the roof of Gnat's GMC Fenix or if Sarge can make angled physical barrier I can jump it with my bike. But my speciality is more in improvising a way out that keeps everybody alive than it is at planning the quiet way in, so I yield to any better idea."

He finally manages to lit his humid cigar. The lighter reveals his wet mudchops, his mouth curled in a wide grin around his tusks and the non cybered hand holding the lighter, sporting an old tattoo on his knuckles. The tattoo is slowly fading by the advance of time and the accumulation of callous deposits equally brought on by the troll DNA and a large quantity of fights. It reads "Plan B".... He snaps the lighter closed defiantly and the shadows, the runners oldest and most treacherous friend, wash over the party like a familiar wave of a thousand déjà vus.

Decision time.

[Tulpa]

:2 successes

• Cram*: +2 reaction, +2d6 initiative
• Psyche*: +2 Intuition, +2 Logic
• Running Silent
• : 6 Successes

As the group gathers and plots their next move, Tulpa continues to keep an eye on the local surroundings in the Matrix. Seeing the ghost icon, the decker bites his lip. ”There might be a third team on site.” this isn’t a job. It’s an audition. Those clowns at the store were probly coming here next. How many teams were pit against each other for this try-out? Tulpa fiddles in his bag and pulls out the commlink he nabbed from the decker wannabe. He will flip it on and quickly scan its call log and any active connections it still has. this chummer has a lot of nice gear for not knowing how to use it. Whose sponsoring him?

After going over the newly acquired commlink, Tulpa will pull out his ballistics mask and slide it on. It was pretty clear the whole team was going to go over the fence and Topher wanted to be prepared. ”ill keep an eye on the matrix, but I cant do much more.” He will turn his attention to the wall in front of the team. ”If we can disable to electricity we can jump the fence.” He will motion to the cameras. ”Shoot one out maybe?" He will tap the silencer on his own machine pistol.

Possible rolls needed:

: 1 success

: 2 successes

: 3 successes

: 1 success

[Bushwack]

"Don't worry Tulpa, I'm not gonna try funny business, I couldn't even if I wanted to.

He plugs Tulpa's delicate Evotech in a his crude single big screen big button burner commlink marketed to elderly trolls.

"I know, I know, but the screen is bigger"

"You are victim of your own success Tulpa. All these icons and sensors and cameras and whatnot mapped for our convenience in record speed.. However there are things there that are just there, without an AR or VR presence... Like this wooden plank there next to the water in the southwest corner in between two anchor points. When he draws it resembles more an organ of the male anatomy than anything else, but he gets the point across.

I think Shrike, Mulpa, Wraith and me if it's sufficiently secured can jump it from the quay. We just need to time in between the camera rotation. What we do need to know if this plank is under camera surveillance from the inside. Maybe once we are inside we can just loosen and move it closer to the wall so the braniacs here have smaller jump than us."