Another day, another scar [21 Apr 2004|09:48pm] [ mood | discontent ] [ music | cEvin Key - Running (Back & Forth) ] Our latest job: take out the people who took over a power plant. The mission itself was rather uneventful. Standard fare, really. Though usually I don't get shot. My arm'll be hurting for at least another week... .... You know.. I've killed a reasonable number of people since my days in KE. I've never really thought much of it.. I pull the trigger, out fly some slugs, and down goes the enemy. It's a visceral, almost beautiful sight, watching a man go from life to lifeless. It's surreal.. and I imagine they never really feel any pain. Three slugs fly from the barrel, impact the skull, and the man dies instantly. That's never really bothered me much after the first few... But this was different. I've only killed two people any other way before this mission. One was accidental, my shock glove electricuted him and killed his vitals.. fried his insides. That was a horrible odor I've never forgotten.. the other, I poisoned, and then slit her throat. That one never has bothered me much. Either she went, or we did. But those two in the security room... I watched the life fade from them. I watched as they died, inhaling cyanide fumes. Their eyes rolled back and they dropped. After a moment or two, the heave of their chests stopped.. I've never seen anything so disconcerting. I imagine that sounds odd after the talk of the effect of bullets on skulls.. but it's really not something you could understand until you saw it. DID it.. and what's more.. they didn't deserve to die. They were protecting something sacred to them.. Maybe the nightmares of that will overpower the others. I need a break from those other ones... 2 comments|post comment

The "Van Plan" [18 Jan 2004|01:37pm] [ mood | anxious ] [ music | SETI - Mare Crisium ] So, been checking out some catalogs on Shadowland and talking with a mechanic contact of mine, and I've more or less planned out what I want to do with our precious Bulldog. So far, she's got a popup turret with all the special mods and conversion kits, a load of ammo bins, and an Ares Alpha mounted in it. I got new tires for her too, Runflat Performance tires. Very nice, very nice indeed. Think I ought to pick up a second set and stash 'em in the back, just in case... She's got a new paintjob too. Photovoltaic chameleon paint. It'll come in handy eventually, once I learn how to modify the colors and designs, maybe get a few programmed in. All I need to go with it are a morphing liscense plate and a transponder library chip. Anonyminity, a runner's best friend. Anyways, here's most of the plan here. Top row is standard, unmodified Bulldog, second row is after all of the first and second groups of modifications. The first group of mods are already installed, the second set are definite plans for installation, the third set are possibilities. Handle Speed Accel Body Armor Signature AutoPilot Sensors Cargo LoadMax Cost 4/6 ... 085.0 .. 4 ..... 4 .... 5 ..... 2 .......... 2 ....... 0 ....... 50.0 .. 960.00 ... 052600 1/3 ... 123.5 .. 6 ..... 4 .... 5 ..... 2 .......... 2 ....... 4 ....... 20.0 .. 708.25 ... 393975 Ares Alpha (8000 5.25kg) Suppressed (750), grenade linked (750), converted (750 .5kg), Int Smartlink-2 integration (7025 1CF) and mounted in turret. Ammo Bins. 1 EX, 1 AV, 1 Gel, 1 Standard, 1 Grenade. 250, 1CF, 1kg. May need more. Photovoltaic Chameleon Paint. 5000 flat. Popup Turret, Micro, AA (7500 3CF 10kg). Recoil Adjustor for turret. 5 points. 2500 1CF 29kg. Reinforced Folding Bench (1500 6CF 300kg). Rigger Adaptation (2800 1CF 10kg). Runflat Performance Tires. 1800. Roll Bars. 2000 flat. Drone Racks. Get one for a 2 body drone (15400 8CF 45kg). Drive-by-Wire 3 (98625). Engine Customization for top speed (5260). Engine Customization for acceleration boost (5260). Engine Customization for load max increase (5260 -200kg). Level 4 Sensors, upgrade later (43750 3CF 35kg). Power Amplifier 7 (2625 3.5CF 7kg). Retransmission Unit (75000 1.5CF 5kg). Remote Control Interface. 20000 flat. Amphibious level 1, 2500 flat. Consider other levels later. Winch. 1000 1CF 10kg. Crash Cages (7000 25kg 2CF). Morphing License Plate (10000 1kg). Transponder Library Chip, with 200MP (8000). Spotlight system, one white light, one medium range infrared. 1800 for two lights. External Cargo Mounts could be useful. 8CF capacity worth, at a total of 2000. Spare set of Runflat Performance Tires. 1800. Security Systems, minimum level 8 maglocks, and electric shock system. 12000 for locks, 2000 for shock. Remote Control Deck (.25CF) with one 20cm screen (.15CF) and 2 40cm screens (.60CF). Remote Control Encryption Module, 15000 per rating. Consider CMC, likely level 6. Electronics Ports. Lots of them. 1000 apiece. ECM, ECCM, ED, ECD of some sort. Consider a second drone rack of the exact variety as the first (7700 8CF 45kg). 2 comments|post comment

On runs gone bad... [18 Oct 2003|08:26pm] So... these past few weeks have certainly been most.. "interesting". Yeah, that's it. We get our usual call from Ug, letting us know Krunk has us lined up for a job. We meet up with the Johnson at Gimpy Rachel's (best parapalegic strippers in Seattle). The guy was friendly, suave, and forthcoming. He seemed... not right, somehow. I snapped a pic of him with a microcam I had rigged up in my clothes, just in case, and I'm glad I did... Anyways, this guy asks us to infiltrate a Pemex corp office, and retrieve some files for him. Says there's both electronic versions AND dead-tree style files. That was an odd thing to hear. We ask if Pemex is a subsidary of any other corp, and he says no.. but then ays security is very tight on all floors but the ground level lobby, and then offers us 160000 nuyen for finishing the job ! We shoulda known that was excessive for a simple datasteal, regardless of security, and especially for a small corp. We decide to do some legwork. We get the floorplans, so on and so forth as usual, and hire a Decker to loop feeds on the security cams. We also decide to find out who this Johnson is. We don't get much of anything strange, though we do find out that Pemex is in fact a subsidary of the Big A... and suddenly we all get this cold dread. We've had some run ins with the Azzies, and they KNOW we fucked them over last time we worked for them. But still, we decided to go check things out. Arriving near the Pemex building reveals a hell of a lot of Lonestar activity. Paranoia sets in, but I was pretty sure they weren't canvassing for us or anything. Looked like a chase, and my scanner confirmed it. No problem, it'll just be a little harder to slip into the place. We decide to wait til things calm down before heading in. Once I hear the chase is moving a good ways away, we suit up in an alleyway and prepare to make our way into the building. Next thing we know, there's a Lonestar car stopping outside. One cop gets out and heads in, looking around, the other waits. They're looking for their suspect... the cop in the car spotted us, so we dropped into the sewer. Not long after, some chromed cop drops in, spots us, and tries to arrest us. Lucky for us, Varth's a quick bugger, and he drops him with a stunbolt or something. Waiting a little longer, I hear another cop near the manhole. I subvocalize to the group about him, and we get ready again. Next thing we know, BOOM, we're all almost knocked over by some kinda shockwave, and deafened by an explosion or soemthing. Did the cop drop a Conc on top of the chromer, trying to get us ? Next thing we know, sirens are everywhere up there. We trek through the sewers to another manhole. It smells like something burning, and there's heat comign from the hole.. we decide to skip it, and head away from the smell. Next hole we pop up, we peek around. That Pemex building ? GONE. Engulfed in a sea of flames, the backbone of the office barely standing still. We decide it's about time to get the hell outta here. Awhile later, we've managed to get our hands on the guy the cops were after, and Ug takes care of his interrogation, after taking him to a street doc to get his breakable teeth removed. Turns out he had Kamikaze and Laes in them.. geez. Interrogation reveals he had nothing to do with anything. So, Ug took him back to his home... false leads. How annoying. Krunk suggested we lay low, cuz that chromer probably thought we were the bombers, so we did. After a few days of MINBENDING PARANOIA AND BOREDOM, he calls Ug back up. Tells him another Johnson wants them to do some work for him. He tells Ug the guy works for Aztechnology, said he knew we didn't blow the office up. After some negotiation, we decided to work for this guy. He wanted us to head out to a Deep Green enclave in the Sioux Nation and find out who was responsible. I don't recall him ever tell us how he knew it was them, but we agreed to do it anyways. He gave us some nuyen up front, and offered quite a bit for delivery of the info. Well, we took some time waiting for Alaria to finish up her time in the hospital from our last run, and then decided to head out, Ug on his motorcycle, us three in Alaria's Jackrabbit, with me driving. 'Course, it figures that we'd be accosted by go-gangers, in the middle of a massive rainstorm. A Knight Errant modded Mustang soared past us, then slowed down to our speed. A guy in the back seat took a shot at Ug, apparently barely missing. Ug pulled out a conc and tossed it in the car. It went off, smashing out the windows and dropping the gunner. The driver slowed the car down, and as it passed us, Varth fired a stunbolt or two at the driver. He kept going though, and a matter of seconds later, the Jackrabbit was hit with a small explosion ! Nobody saw that coming.. I kept my cool and maintained control of the car though. Ug wasn't so lucky though, when he tried following the Mustang off road. Whoever was taking shots at us fired a warning shot, and then took a shot at Ug's bike, putting a nice hole in part of it, throwing him from it, face first into the dirt. 'Course, this is Ug we're talking about. The guy's a tank, even for a troll, so he shrugged that off... Varth then asked for some binoculars, and stunned the sniper who was shooting at us after spotting him in astral space. Magic.. that's some weird shit right there... A little way ahead, there were a bunch of go-ganger's who'd blocked off the road ahead. Ug tried negotiating his way thru, and found out they were ex-UCAS military. Varth decided to drop them with some spell or another, despite there being a guy covering him with a Predator from behind. Next thing I know, this elf with a no-dachi charges at Varth.. he ducks under Ug's claymore, slashes himopen, and keeps going. In mid stride this guy sheaths the no-dachi and draws a katana, ready to drop Varth. Varth pulls out his whip (stupidest weapon ever) and tangles the elf up, and then casts his spell, dropping the troll and the grenadier on the bridge, and drops himself. The dwarf that was driving the Mustang runs up to Alaria and drops her in a single axe stroke ! That little motherfucker ! I fucking flipped on the little bastard... he ate ten rounds of high powered explosive ammo to the chest for that one.. fucker wasn't anything but a stain and some meat chunks on the pavement after that. The the elf broke free, glanced around, and set his sword on the ground and sat down, admitting defeat. That sure pissed Ug off, who stormed off punching rocks or something. We got Alaria help pretty quickly too, and I prodded Varth to make sure he was ok.. had prolly just drained himself (turns out he was playing dead). We looked around, and found that the guy with the Predator had zoned out. Ug kocked him out, and then did first aid on the troll. He then wrapped the guy up in duct tape... after looting away, we heard what we thought were helicopters, but as it turns out, they were rotodrones. One fired a rocket at Ug, barely missed. They then ordered us to surrender. Varth had already stealthed himself and made himself invisible, so he just shot them both down, and we got ready to go our own way. Then we spotted them.. a trio of Mustangs and a fucking APC were on their way ! I set C4 on the bridge supports above us, 'cause they had to pass over it to get on this road. The rest of the group took off while I set the C4. I took off afterwards in the Mustang, rain and dirt splashing over my goggles from the shattered windshield. The C4 went over perfectly. I detonated the bridge as the APC crossed it, and it went down with the bridge, and right afterwards came the three Mustangs. None of them saw it coming, and none had time to slow down in the rain. All three flew off and smashed into the side of the hill. The APC, on the other hand, managed to keep going and chase us, and our cars were so beat, we couldn't actually outrun it. Just when we thought it was as bad as it could get, the worst decided to rear its ugly face. A helicopter, with a mounted AUTOCANNON ! We pulled off the road and into the woods as soon as possible, and dropped a few trees to slow the APC, though it wound up just tearing through them with its gatling gun. The helicopter and the APC went apeshit on the woods. The copter fired AC rounds in blindly, hoping to hit, and so did the APC. Then they both left. Go-gangers my ass. They were definately ex-UCAS. That was some serious hardware... Heading back to the road, I spotted some landmines just kinda sitting there. So, I walked over and disarmed them (god I love being able to do that !), then threw em in my pack. The rest of the ride to the Deep Green enclave was uneventful too. We arrived in a town straight out of the 1950s. Nice houses, quiet streets, lots of trees, no skyscrapers. The only thign throwing it off was the Biodome in the distance. Out objective, most likely. We headed over to a hospital and dropped Alaria off (as usual...) and then had our cars taken in with a mechanic. Finally, we found a hotel and got some rest. Next day, we're doing some legwork. We find out some about Deep Green, and find that they don't sound like the eco-terrorists they're always portrayed as. We find some likely suspects, and talk to the most important seeming one. Ug heads into his home, after being invited of course, and the guy actually tells him what we needed to know ! A guy called Chico showed up, helped Deep Green a bunch, then blew up the Pemex facility, likely trying to marr the reputation of Deep Green. More legwork reveals what he might look like, that he's Cuban, and that he's prolly on his way to Aztlan now.. fuck.. We call the Johnson, and he tells us it's enough info. We stuck around town til Alaria was ok again (hell, I thought I was staying in the hospital too, with how long I spent there cheering her up), and til the cars had been fixed up. Another uneventful drive, and we were home in Seattle. The Johnson wanted to meet with us, in his office. We gave him the info, he gave us the money, and thanked us (sincerely, no less) and asked us if we could try trackin Chico down. We agreed, of course, 'cause we need to clear our names... and then we head out. Shoulda known things were going too well... Next thing we know, we hear a thud in his office. We head in, and he's been shot. Looks like somebody shot THROUGH THE BUILDING at him, got him right in the heart ! He had a transmitter there.. this sniper was good.. We let the guards know what happened, and we got the fuck outta there. We've been laying low since.. and we're all a bit depressed by this. That Johnson felt like the only guy in the Big A we could trust, and look at him now ! On the plus side, things have quieted down. We're gonna eventually look for this Chico guy, but for now ? Time to rest and relax. This hasn't been an easy month at all... post comment

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