Shadowrun - The Syndicate

[Tarinaky]

((OOC here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196701))

The group’s Johnson has been displeased, losing money and territory hand over fist. Their manufacturing facilities in the Barrens were scorched by the Halloweeners. Their dealers in Auburn refuse to go out for fear of reprisal from the Humanis Policlub ‘cleaning up the streets’ Frank Castle style.

He summons a member from each of the three teams in his stable to a meeting as well as an Ork and a human as body guards. The Ork looks like a trussed penguin, in an ill-fitting suit while the bespectacled Human looks completely harmless.

Mr Johnson adjusts his tie and brushes his blond hair past his pointy ears. “Right. Lets go.... Let me have your attention for a moment! What ‘cause you’re talking about what? Bitching about that job you botched, some broad you’re trying to frag - so forth. Lets talk about something important!”

“We don’t have to listen to this drek, mouthed off one of the shadowrunner: a human wearing a red suit”

“You’re right, you sure don’t chummer because the good news is you’re all fired! The bad news is you’ve got, all you’ve got, is just one week to regain your jobs.... Oh, have I got your attention now? Good because we’re adding a little something to this year’s Combat Biker League Deathrace. As you all know, first prize is 300,000 Nuyen. Second prize is you’re fired. You get the picture? You laughing now? You’ve got skills, use them. You can’t do the jobs you’re given, you can’t do drek - You are drek! Hit the bricks chummer and beat it because you are going out!”

“The jobs are weak.” An old man, the third shadowrunner, stands to confront the Johnson, the Ork looking ready.

“The jobs are weak? The fragging jobs are weak? You’re weak. I’ve been in this business fifteen years. I could go out there tonight, with the material you’re given and run the drekheads out of town.”

“What’s your name?” laughs the red-suited human.

“Frag you! That’s my name! You know why mister? Because you took the bus to get here while I drove an eighty thousand BMW - that’s my name! And your name is you’re wanting.” The elderly human’s frown deepens. “You can’t play in the man’s game, then go home and tell your wife your troubles because only one thing counts in this life - doing the jobs you’re paid to do! You hear me you fragging trogs? O. O. D. A! Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action. Observation, are you observing carefully? I know you are because it’s frag or walk. Decision - have you made your decision for Christ! … Get out there gentlemen, win the prize and we will have a future together.”

The one who attended the meeting returns to the group's meet-up, relaying the dire news...

[remmon]

Lili quietly entered the safe house the team was hanging out in at the moment to await the results of her meeting with the Johnson.

"Well, I got us some bad news and some good news." She started "The Johnson is displeased and heads are going to start rolling on very short term. The good news is that he's decided to give us a chance to redeem ourselves."

Lili sat down on the couch, switched the TV to show images from an external device and plugged her pocket secretary in. "All we gotta do is win this, the Combat Biker League Deathrace. We've got a week to prepare." She continued, as a number of images from prior CBLDs rolled across the screen. "I propose we start by finding out who the competition is and culling the competition before the events start, because it's much easier to win if we're the only ones competing. I've got a vehicle for the event, if any of you need work done on your cars or bikes, come see me. Two armed vehicles will be better then 1."

[Tarinaky]

The Trideo display shows 3D images of a bunch of crazed go-gangers going at each other in the streets with machineguns, clubs and all the rest while being recorded from an ariel vantage point. Drone cameras swoop in for close-ups on the action.

Police footage from the Lone Star persuit is also interjected.

There is, in fact, a distinct lack of Combat Bikes, being primarily an automobile affair - presumably since they can mount bigger weapons. The violence is staggered as the teams race between flags scattered through the city - the worst of it erupting there.

[fightfan84]

Stark is in a large chair leaned up against the wall with his eyes closed and his arms behind him. After hearing Lili he opens his eyes and sits upright in his chair. He grinned slightly "This will be fun."

[Gull]

Joe turned as Lil entered the room and laid out what was going. He was glad- sitting in silence while Stark sat against the wall, his eyes closed, had bored him a little. He couldn't meditate with someone else in the room, and he didn't want to disturb the troll, as he was still trying to figure out whether or not he could outfight him. It wasn't that Joe had any plans to do so. It was just the kind of thing he thought of.

Joe blinked, his face impassive. Racing.

He remembered the King in Viva Las Vegas, with Chinese subs floating beneath his car tires. He remembered watching a bad flat-to-trid conversion of Spinout, the color gone all wonky. He remembered a very good restored version of Speedway, a very transcendental moment. That was a good one.

"Elvis did a lot of racing," he offered. He paused, speaking in his particular start-stop style. "In his movies, anyways. He always won." He paused again. There was a flaw in his logic.

"We're not in a movie though." We're also not the King, he thought, but kept it to himself. It wouldn't come across as confident. "So maybe we should kill the other racers. Or their cars. Whichever works. Is there a list of who's going to be racing?"

[fightfan84]

Stark shakes his head slightly at the mention of Elvis and looks at Joe. "Not this again." Looks to the others. "I say we just eliminate our competition." Think's to himself about pulling out his light machinegun and going on a murderous rampage.

[Tarinaky]

Lili knows that entering the competition is a casual affair. It's dominated by crazy, SINless, gang-bangers, psychopaths and desperados who're reaching out for the prize money out of desperation and don't care how many people they shoot or run-over in the process.

It's why the winner also gets free legal counsel.

Megacorporations sponsor the event semi-discretely by sponsoring the live Lone Star car chase channel (or similar). In exchange everyone's Media departments poke and prod their connections to make things as interesting (read: violent) as possible in the name of good television and selling security to the huddled masses.

The entire thing can continue to spin money for months afterwards as the SINners lament how dangerous the streets are and how someone should do something about it.

[remmon]

Lili glared at Joe as he started about Elvis, waited out Stark's response and then replied "Taking out the competition isn't going to be easy ahead of the game. There's no formal registration and the groups that do publicly announce they're competing have an annoying tendency to disappear or end up in the hospital prior to the event."

She seemed to contemplate things for a few moments, then continued "Our best option might be to get some help from Lone Star or one of the other groups that will be filming the event. For the right sum of money or services, we may be able to convince Lone Star to show up in force and shoot the right people for us."

[tonberryking]

"Hells bells, what a rotten set up.... I knew we were in a fix, but the drek's just pouring rain now, ain't it?"

Ambling in from the back of the safe house, where a hastily assembled lodge of very large potted trees in a makeshift greenhouse has been added, the little bear shaman shows had been eavesdropping. She makes an audible show of it due to her choker weighed down with turquoise studs jangling on a silver chain before slumping like a slug into a seat.

"I don't like it. Not at all, and I ain't about to let Lonestar shoot our problems away; betcha a few hundred yen that someone else would go pay them off first. Doesn't it just figure? And another thing..." she starts, listing off all sorts of complaints about this and that for a steady stream. It's not worth going into all of them (nor is it entirely printable) but after a minute of letting off steam, Juno tilts in her chair, kicking her feet a little. She was blowing off steam.

"But! There's gonna be hordes of schmoes lugging ammo into this, right? I happen to know a guy who's into buying and selling guns; someone hitch me a ride over to Blue Shores club and I can see if he's noticed any chummers hauling boxes of car-riddling ammo around. Even if we don't go after them, we could at least know who's buying.

[remmon]

"Well whadda ya know, my ride just pulled up in front of the door. Let's go see that friend of yours. I guess we can stop by one of mine as well, see if he's had any big buyers recently he's willing to give some information on.."

Lili got up from the couch and waited for Juno before heading down to her car, which was waiting outside and helpfully opened the door to let the group in.

[Gull]

Joe let Stark and Lili's glares pass through him, unfazed. Pearls before swine, he thought to himself. Given his own cultic relationship with Our Father in Graceland, Joe couldn't understand how others could be less enlightened. He tried not to let it bother him.
"Anything like this, there should be a lot of betting. If there are any favorites, there will be betting. And if there's betting, you can bet the Vory are running numbers on then. Let me ask a friend if he knows what's going on."
Joe reached in the pocket of his motorcycle jacket and drew out his pocket secretary. Thumbing the subroutine that ran Aleksi Brusilov's ridiculous run-around call program, Joe pressed his phone to his ear and waited as it rang.

[tonberryking]

"Yeah, gambling's a good idea too, I guess." Juno adjusts the Green Beret's beret atop her head and follows after Lili.

"Let's hit your contact first," she explains upwards, "An' when we get to Blue Shores, stay in the car and keep the motor runnin'; Blues may be acting weird again..."

That was Juno's way to describe the club owner's feelings towards the 'cute lil' Indian'. She wasn't sure what day it was, which meant she wasn't sure what theme/kind of music Billy would be throwing around, but she was sure that the guy had a torch for her. Hopefully it was burning pretty good.

[remmon]

Lili stepped in the back of the van, taking place on the large bench in the back before speaking to the air
"Mantis, take us to Gustav Emeren's place please."
before turning back to Juno and addressing her "Well, I don't really need to stay in the car to keep the engine running. Or to be ready for a quick getaway. Mantis here can drive himself. And if things get bad, see that turret? Yeah, that's loaded with explosive rounds and HE grenades."

[tonberryking]

Juno smirks. She knew there was a reason she liked this car.

"B.B. just wants to grab my ass; I don't think anything he has planned warrants a rocket launcher... Though you think we should enter into this competition with this buggy?"

[fightfan84]

As Lili and Juno are out the door Stark decides he might as well go along. He tries to flag them down before they leave.

[Tarinaky]

Joe:
Your contact tells you there's betting - but nobody knows who's taking part till a few minutes before the event... makes fixing the ordeal a nightmare.

The little prefab, nestled in the dockside waste land slum marked the business place of Gustav. Compared to the shacks and mobile homes built one upon the other it looked like a fragging palace.

[remmon]

Alas, since the pilot is driving and I'm not plugged in, flagging the car down isn't going to help.

Lili got out of the car and headed in, looking for Gustav.
"As you can see, this isn't the kinda place you wanna be in at night, especially not by yourself. 'course nobody bothers Gustav or his customers."

[fightfan84]

As the vehicle drives off he mutters a curse to himself and heads back inside. Seeing Joe talk on his pocket secretary Stark figures he should do the same.

Next to his chair lying on the floor is his backpack. He walks over to it and pulls out his pocket secretary to contact his friend Quinton Jaymes.

[Gull]

"Spaseba, Aleksi. Do svidaniya," Joe hung up and tucked his pocsec back in his coat pocket, shifting the two-gun speed rig across his shoulders, settling the paired Savalettes tucked in his armpits. He looked over to Stark. "The Vory don't know who are racing yet. They're not very happy about it either."
He was absorbed momentarily by retying one of his boots, and then waited for Stark to get off the phone.

[Tarinaky]

Stark:
You dial his number. when he answeers you can hear noises on his end. You quickly summise that he is at his shop in Auburn and that it is very busy.

"What did you want omae?"


At the waste land:
as you approach the prefab an elf, missimg his front teeth, offers to watch your car for a dollar.

Inside Emrette's place there is a youmg dishevelled Ork boy cleanimg. As you enter Gustav barks some broken Polish at the boy who retreats into the back of the shop.

"Good evening." he rasps with a toothy grin.

[fightfan84]

"Mind doing me a solid? I could use information on anyone purchasing large amounts of explosives, APDS rounds or heavy weaponry. Or perhaps anyone mentioning this year’s Combat Biker Deathrace." Stark mutes his pocket secretary so Quinton can't hear and speaks to Joe. "Get us some transportation to Auburn. I should have a lead."

[remmon]

"Kid, that car's got more firepower then a Knight Errant squad, she can watch after herself."
With that comment, Lili proceeded into the building, where Gustav sent the Ork boy off before focusing his attention on her
"As you probably know, Gustav, there's a Deathrace coming up soon. We're trying to gather some intel on it for a client and I figured you might have noticed some bigger then usual shipments of guns and ammo moving around."

[Gull]

"We'll have to get a cab." said Joe, uncertainly. He didn't own a car.

[Tarinaky]

Stark:
He sighs. "You know... You know I can't tell you that sort of stuff. There's nil point running a gunrunning business if I tell all and sundry who bought what."


Lili:
"Ah! So you are entering this year, yes? I have guns! Big guns!" He goes pulls an LMG out from under the counter. "You want sponsorship, yes?"

[remmon]

"Gustav, my dear man, I might enter and if I decide to do so, I will certainly consider your sponsorship offer." Replied Lili, inserting a short pause before continuing "But first, you need to stop trying to dodge the question Gustav. Who was it and what are they stocking up on?"

[Tarinaky]

Gustav's Guns:
"Ya ne ponimayu. Business is good! Yes!"

[remmon]

(Russian)"You understand just fine, Gustav." (English) "Perhaps we should step into the back, somewhere a little more private. Or we could discuss things over dinner, I know some good restaurants downtown."

[Tarinaky]

"I can't tell you. I don't ask what the guns are for. Even if I did it would be in confidence." answers Gustav, frankly.

[fightfan84]

Start is abit disappointed after hearing Quinton and replies. "I can understand that. I'll figure something out. Catch you later."

After ending his call with Quinton he looks to Joe. "My friend is reluctant to disclose anything but he sounded extremely busy, perhaps due to the upcoming event. What do you say we take a trip out to Auburn to check it out?"

Start contacts a cab company and sends one to pick them up. He directs the driver to Auburn near Quinton's place. He wonders how the ladies are doing with there contacts and contemplates informing them of where he's going.

[Gull]

Joe nodded. "Let's go to Auburn. If no one's talking, we're going to have to find out on our own."

[Tarinaky]

I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'm feeling this game. I'm going to keep trying to GM it in the hopes that I feel better about it, but I will be doing so at a slightly reduced pace to avoid feeling burned out.

Stark and Joe head towards Quinton's. As they pass the cab driver refuses to stop, seeing the orange colours of the Halloweeners outside.

[Gull]

Joe blinked at the cab driver's refusal to stop.
"Uh. Why don't you let us worry about the Halloweeners?"
He said that for the cab driver's benefit, of course. He wasn't actually worried about the 'Weeners, and doubted that Stark was either. After all, keeping cool was what the King was all about.

[Tarinaky]

The cab driver drops you off about a block away and tells you to hurry - pay up and get out.

[fightfan84]

As Stark gets out he turns to Joe and says "We need to observe what's going on. Let's try not to be seen while we move into position." Stark begin's jogging down the street and says back to Joe. "Follow my lead."

//Does Stark know of a decent location where Joe & him could observe what might be going on?. Whether that be from across the street with his cyber-eyes or perhaps something closer if needed.//

For Stealth check if possible.
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

[Tarinaky]

You surreptitiously enter a cafe opposite via its back entrance.

[Gull]

Joe tucked his hands in the pockets of his jacket and kept his head down. Remaining inconspicuous was easy- all he had to to was stay behind Stark and use him as cover. Behind the bulk of the troll, the slight young man was all but invisible.
Settling in with a cheap styro cup of soykaf, Joe peeked out the cafe's window, keeping an eye on those coming and going, especially any cargo.
"I don't think we'll be able to get them all," he said. "This is really going to come down to Lili on the actually day of the race." He wasn't sure what he could contribute- he was good at punching people, but cars were less bothered by a grill full of knuckles.

[Tarinaky]

The halloweener's load up a van with assorted party favours.

They're of the kinds you expect, flamethrowers... rocket launchers... copious quantities of ammunition.

You're not sure how long they're going to be loading up. Do you intend to wait for them to finish or do you want to do anything?

[remmon]

"Why don't we meet up in the Golden Crab downtown, Gustav? We can discuss this sponsorship deal you're offering there over dinner."


OOC: Quick, grenade the Halloweeners or call Lili so she can have them grenaded :p

[tonberryking]

Juno spends this time constructively, sitting crosslegged in the back of Lili's car with the windows up checking the slide on her Remmington (again, *out of sight* I'd like to add,) having loaded it with some gel rounds to stay out of too much trouble.

OOC: Just posting to show I'm still around, just wasn't sure if there's anything for Juno to involve herself with until they hit the Blue shores.

[Tarinaky]

Gustav: "Ahh. So you can leave Gustav with the tab again, yes? Get slotted - we talk here. You paint advert on side of van - I give you two large. Assuming, of course, you make it back here to claim."

He laughs.

Stark: Kill the Halloweeners! Take their stuff!

[fightfan84]

Paying no attention to Joe's doubt's Stark tell's him "They definately look to be gearing up pretty heavily. It will be easier taking them out now then on race day. Let's take them by surprise, we should have the upper hand in close quarters."

With that said Stark's retractable spurs come out of his hands and he start's making his way to them. Once he's within ten to fifteen meters he charges past the closest Holloweener into the middle of the group attempting to impale the biggest threat he can see.


For Stealth check if possible
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
/Bonus Roll's in case of 6's/
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]
[roll9]

Attacking with Duel Spur's. Four extra dice from Combat Pool. The other Two combat pool is allocated to damage resistance.
[roll10]
[roll11]
[roll12]
[roll13]
[roll14]
[roll15]
[roll16]
[roll17]
[roll18]
[roll19]
[roll20]
/Bonus Roll's in case of 6's/
[roll21]
[roll22]
[roll23]
[roll24]
[roll25]
[roll26]

[Gull]

Joe nodded, not saying anything and capered after Stark as he stealthed into the Halloweeners. As Stark drove into the first one, Joe slipped past him and without a scrape of a bootheel crashed into the next ganger, spinning low under their guard and then driving his fist through their face.


Stealth roll: [roll0] (Note: Traceless Walk power means that Joe's footsteps make no noise)
Unarmed Combat (Martial Arts) [plus 2 dice for adept power] roll: [roll1]
Any 6s I will reroll in a supplementary post.

[Gull]

Stealth 6s: [roll0]
UA Combat 6 (Yeesh, what a ****ty roll): [roll1]

[Tarinaky]

I'm really sorry. This just isn't working out is it?

I've left you hanging for over a week now promising to update tomorrow. I think it might be better, at this stage, for me to bow out.

I'm really sorry to do this as I know it annoys people but I don't really see much of an alternative as my lack of enthusiasm is having a bit of a knock-on effect on an otherwise healthy game I'm also running so... sorry.

[Gull]

No biggie, some games just don't work out.

[tonberryking]

It's alright; nothing personal about it, so don't worry if keeping the game going's more trouble than not.