Runners:
Thankyou aka Eckhard Roberts
Aemon Burst
Ortega
Ro Tain

The team is hired by a Johnson using the name Lin Yao Chang. He checks out, so they get smuggled to Europort to hear about the job. He wants them to kick some pirates off of a cargo ship called the Free Taiwan, and is offering a pretty huge payout for what he says will be less than a full night’s work. They agree, most of them opting to take their pay in Wuxing gear. They do a little research and see that the ship is operated by a wholly-owned Wuxing subsid, so they don’t feel like they’ll be causing themselves any future problems.

They steal 2 cigarette boats from the marina that the meet was at, and head out to sea. TY rigs the riggable one and drives the other, figuring it’ll be useful to have an undamaged escape boat. They reach the ship with little trouble, shoot out some spotlights after they get noticed climbing aboard, and fight off a small army of drones equipped with cargo-hauling arms that they use to try to crush the runners.

Investigating further, they find the group of surfer pirates attempting to flee the ship, but are dissuaded from pursuing by a series of distressing equipment and drone failures (which they determine could be the work of a technomancer). They also find 2 crew hiding out in a “safe room”, but are unable to convince them to leave.

They find the container that Chang told them to locate, and break in. It seems to be loaded to the brim with boardgame components, and they can’t detect any chemical traces indicating what they are otherwise (drugs, explosives, etc), so they splash fuel oil over everything, chuck a few genades in, close it up again, and set it off. With the contents sufficiently trashed, and the ship seemingly returning to it’s proper course now that the pirates have left, they decide to bail before the cops arrive.

They get back to Europort without incident, and call on the Exchange to find a friendly marina to stow the riggable craft in. They call the deaddrop number they were given, and receive 4 tickets to a black tie gala at a local museum, for the start of an Asian art exhibit. They rent tuxes and a u-haul (to store all their gear in), and then rest up til evening.

Ortega stays in the truck while the other 3 go in. They follow proper etiquette and wait til the mingling portion of the evening to approach Chang. Sadly, he doesn’t seem to know them, and appears to have been impersonated by whoever actually hired them. He is not interested in paying them, either. They are annoyed but leave without causing a scene, having noticed heavy Triad security. They get a call shortly after they exit that has a local street address and says “15 minutes.” Chang also calls TY to thank him for not causing a scene, saying that he appreciates his professional attitude.

Lacking time to set up a proper ambush, they head over and drop Aemon off a block early. However, he gets astrally spotted, and a reptilian-looking changeling punk pulls up next to him in a new-ish Mercury Comet, and introduces himself as Simon Andrews. He tells them that he was the real Johnson behind the job, an elaborate prank to cause Chang to lose face with his master, the great dragon Lung, when Lung hears about the cargo container’s destruction tomorrow (april 1st). Simon tells them that unfortuantely the face he hired to pose as Chang (and thus incriminate him) offered the team a bit more than he was authorized to, and the pays going to be significantly lower. When TY protests, Simon tells them he’ll throw in the Comet, too. They agree, with Ro remaining reluctant- she feels that this whole setup was rude. Aemon quickly bonds with Simon, and TY also falls under the sway of his charm fairly quickly.

They head back to the safehouse in Hamburg, Ro and TY via boat and Ortega and Aemon via car. TY lets Ro drive for a while, since she loves it so much, even though they go much slower. Ortega and Aemon fight off some road agents with little trouble. They decide next to help the anarchists out with their food supply problem.