So we left off last time with Killbo coming out of the closet, Leona downing enough raw energy to power Seattle for a year and Amoral preparing to stealthily assassinate a man. As the first two are fairly self explanatory let's start with that last one.
Having gone largely unnoticed as a member of staff, Amoral was able to start examining the experiment from a distance. The demonstration itself seemed to be fairly small and self contained, with only a few items being involved. Besides the jar of water containing the experimental Tempo replacement, the only other device is a neural scanner.
As per usual we considered a myriad of plans ranging from the sane but unlikely to the ludicrous before settling upon a plan. The first was considering poisoning the water he'd drink with the Tempo, killing him mid experiment. The last, and most desperate, was gathering the group in-front of him in the hopes that seeing into all our minds would be too traumatic an experience for a telepath to survive. Amoral instead just opted to take the simplest option sabotage the machine.
Unable to approach the neural scanner directly, Amoral opted to utilise his mastery over drones. A few rare seconds of research prior to deciding upon an action, he looked up the specs of the neural scanner's particular model. It didn't take long to discover a big flaw within it- despite being on the marker only a short amount of time, its magnets could be turned into a deadly burst of microwaves. Ones which were powerful enough to kill whoever was inside it at the time.
With the air filled with mini-drones of all types it was only a matter of "resting" to one side as he possessed the machine, then figuring out what wires to pull.
Disguising the drone's launch (it's a dragonfly if you're that interested) by dropping a pen containing it, he managed to close in undetected. Once on the surface, the technomancer proceeded to send it in an elaborate Death Star style attack inside the machine to find its fuse box. Using his power to boost the intensity of the drone's cutters, he tore through a bunch of wiring, turning the scanner into a death-trap. After the drone came back came the hard part of this assassination. One of the specific details of dealing with Lansdale was that we needed to inform him that he was terminated prior to taking him out. Either verbally or, more preferably by handing him an official notice of his termination. This being Amoral's solo effort he was going to be on his own if this went badly.
Thankfully luck was on our side. One bad roll after being handed the notice Lansdale, ubergenius that he was, laughed as he read it then threw it away. Apparently thinking that it was in fact some kind of practical joke.
One blood curdling scream and loud electrical noise later and scratch one more scientist; this time with no bullets or explosions. We were on a roll that day.
Back with Killbo, quickly covering his tracks after leaving the bomb rigged closet he quickly headed downstairs. It was only fair that he give the other group of shadowrunners some warning about what was to happen and Speak-Easy was still manning the desk. After several minutes of making it clear he'd not set them himself, as hard a job as you'd think with Killbo, she was convinced to warn the others. Now he needed to do the same to the rest and take advantage of their second-to-top-floor access while they still had it.
After a good ten minutes of searching, he found Leona on one of the upper floors keeping an eye on Beaumont. Having invited Leona up to his room later on, it was obvious what the scientist's personal vice was. Then again given that he was in the process of trying to get one of his bodyguards drunk for some personal time, he was making no effort to hide this fact. Still, it was something we could take advantage of to recruit him.
Regrouping with Amoral shortly afterwards the three decided upon a plan of attack. With Leona staying upon the bottom floor to keep an eye on things, she'd turn the duo invisible and they would raid the upper floor. Searching for anything of use or even just keeping an ear open for news on what was going on. The opportunity was also taken to have Amoral unlock Killbo's arm mounted grenade launcher, just in case we'd need the firepower on our stealth mission.
Naturally from here on things could only go wrong.
With Killbo failing a braggart test in conversation with Amoral ("I've farted bigger blasts than the one you used to kill him!") and getting into a loud argument while invisible, in front of staff no less, we were off to a flying start. Having to race to the elevator before anyone could hear them or warn of their location, the two quickly found that nearly all the buttons inside were unmarked. With the GM warning us we might want to avoid the top floor, and Amoral using every trick he had to try and hit the right button, we were sent rocketing up to the right floor. It turned out that the ever so devious trick they'd used was to just file off of the numbers, with each of the buttons still wired in order.
Rising up so fast it stopped almost as soon as we'd gotten going, the doors opened to reveal a guard facing us. Suspicious of why there was apparently no one inside, the guard quickly walked in waving his arms about trying to hit anyone who might be invisible. Attempting to sneak out past him, Amoral critically glitched his roll and stumbled right into the guard all but yelling "HELLO, WE'RE HERE!!!"
Drawing his pistol, Killbo decided to deal with the problem with his ever-so-reliable method - Bullets! Turning the top half of the guard's unarmoured head into a crimson fountain of gore. Giving us a second to respond before his freshly blood-coated corpse fell over and alerted the next guard, who just walked into the hall, Killbo promptly executed him as well. Bullet punching through his neck, Killbo quickly made sure no one else was about to alert their intrusion on the upper levels.
As Killbo desperately began to cover his tracks, mopping up blood and moving bodies, Amoral found and hacked the nearby camera which had been watching all this. Entering the usual combat with the systems he began to edit the recorded footage and access logs, trying to cover for our botched entrance. Something which was made no easier when two turns later a patrolling agent stumbled into the node and decided to kick the crap out of him. Thankfully he was inept to the point where Amoral could easily slap him senseless and get back to his work a second later.
With the footage dealt with we had to dispose of the corpses. As the "room" they had opened up onto was one long corridor with a single door at the other end, we had the top of the elevator to hide them on. Black-flipping up onto the ceiling and opening up the hatch to the roof, the dwarf scrambled atop the elevator. Using Amoral's fiber-optic cabling, the GM deeming it strong enough to lift a fully armoured human guard, we hauled them up. The first one came up without any trouble, but then someone called the lift from the bottom floor.
With the elevator rapidly dropping and the doors opening up, Killbo was forced to red-line his cyberlimb and haul both the other corpse and Amoral up after them. Just as he finished, the dwarf collapsed and fell unconcious, robot arm smoking slightly from the performance boost inflicted damage. As Amoral flattened himself against the roof, he heard familiar voices from below as Hedges and Poultry entered the lift. Leaving the hatch open as the lift went up, he overheard part of a very interesting conversation:"Is everything in place?"
"Yes, sir."
"Our friend?"
"Preparing to leave."
"I'll be in my office, keep an eye on that orc fellow."
Just as they leave, Amoral waited a few seconds before breaking out Killbo's med-kit to heal the dwarf and bring him back to consciousness. Lurching awake seconds later with a question of "Have I been drinking hurlg again?" they prepared to move in and considered their options.
Amoral got Killbo's arm in working order again, though unable to repair the once again inoperable grenade launcher. Depressing as this news was, this was quickly overlooked when we learned that the katanas and assault rifles of the guards were not smart-linked or protected in any way. In other words loot!
Taking a few more seconds to make sure no one was coming, and thankfully having the sense to leave the stuff behind to pick up later, the two dropped down and moved in. Knowing us there was ultimately only one way this could end: In fire.
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Shadowrun and all related characters and media are owned by FASA Corporation, Fantasy Productions and Catalyst Games Labs.
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