Runners:
Atlas Park
Lodestone
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi
The runners stow their illicit gear, get licenses for everything else, and then take the bullet train to New Hlobane, the capitol of the Zulu Nation. TY gets a suggestion on a local merc bar to look for a contact from Journeyman Urb, and they head there. Rooster manages to get some info from the bartender, and is told to meet up with a Zulu fixer named Jonny Ubu at the wednesday market. The team spends a quiet night in Atlas’ fancy hotel room, and then heads for the market, a major source of talismans and reagents harvested from the awakened preserves surrounding New Hlobane.
Rooster begins asking around, and is eventually ushered into a private tent via a hidden entrance. A man dressed in tradtional Zulu clothes sits behind a small desk, and two burly Zulu guards stand watchfully near the entrance. The man tells Rooster that their conversation will not be overheard here. Zuberi also tries to ask around, until everyone else shuts him up. TY finds some food that reminds him of meals in his village as a child.
Rooster gives the man an odd pitch: the team is planning to kill a dracoform associated with Mujaji, so the Zulu’s should pay them for it. Rooster also reveals that they are performing this task at the behest of The Order of St. George. The man astutely counters that if the team is already doing the job, there is no reason for him to pay. After some discussion and negotiation, they come to terms that seem to benefit both sides. The Zulu’s will provide weaponry for the team to use on the job, and leave at the scene, as well as some limited funding, and the team will try to make further money selling valuable dragon parts, if the target is in dracoform when killed. Ubu also insists on keeping a clipping of Rooster’s hair, as an insurance policy, and tells him to make sure that noone knows that the Zulu’s were involved.
The team takes the train back to Cape Town, and Atlas smuggles something through the checkpoints at the behest of Ezekiel Grey. The team does not check what is in the package. Grey tells them that this pays their debt for the Laes they acquired through him. They receive the weapons at their hideout, all are military grade Onotari Arms weapons. Atlas practices with the laser training sim to gain some experience before using it on a run, Rooster takes a battle rifle, and they plan to bring the rhino gun (essentially a troll-portable assault cannon) and fire a few rounds as well.
They stalk the target, Merritt, for a few nights to figure out his patterns, after Exocet gives them some ideas of where to go. They find him at a few different clubs that he frequents. He seems to often leave in the company of various celebrities, or wanna-be’s, and travel home in an armored car with a driver to the vicinity of Table Mountain. The team decides to attack on the road, rather than try to breach Mujaji’s compound’s security.
They pick a spot, and Zuberi hangs around the area, gradually gaining control over the materials making up the edge of the highway overpass. On the chosen night, TY steals a heavy SUV, loads it with sand, and follows Merritt’s car. At the ambush site, he rams the car into the right shoulder rail, right after Zuberi warps it away from the rest of the highway, along with a huge chunk of conrete. Merritt’s car plummets the 50 feet to the street below. TY, unable to gain control of his absurdly momentous vehicle, follows. Both TY and Merritt (now in dragon form) manage to bail before their cars crash to the earth, although both are heavily injured in the fall. The other occupants of the car are killed on impact.
The team unleashes holy hell on Merritt with the provided weapons, as Baelor attacks astrally. Zuberi traps Merritt under the enourmous concrete wad that he has been floating around, and the team closes in for the kill. TY gets the final shot in, after staggering to his feet. As Atlas and Zuberi rip out Merritt’s teeth, eyes, and scales as fast as they can, the rest of the team realizes that noone brought an escape vehicle. They hoof it for a few blocks til they find a junker, which TY quickly accesses. LS leaves Baelor behind to chase off astral pursuers, but he is quickly overwhelmed, and LS notices some watcher spirits and a powerful aura with the appearance of a dragon following them.
TY calls Urb for help, but gets shot down. However, he soon gets an encrypted signal from the Exchange, and following that GPS point, reaches a cave system near town, which the team eners. Zuberi and Atlas close the entrance behind them, hopefully delaying astral pursuit, as well as the physical kind that they assume is enroute. TY tears off down the tunnels, trying to navigate the winding pathways to reach the geotag. The rest of the team reluctantly follows, worried that he has finally lost it. Some of the tunnels close behind them as they pass through. They eventually emerge in a lighted room partially filled with empty barrels and crates. Urb awaits them there, and tells them they better hurry, as some of their pursuers have breached the entrance to the cave system. He also reveals himelf as a member of the Exchange, and tells the team they owe him a big one, as they just cost him this hideout.
They slide down a narrow ladder into a waiting Zodiac, and head out of a partially submerged cave into ocean waves. Atlas calls Jason Park and tells him to call Exocet, get all the gear from the hideout, and get out of town. They travel for a while, and reach a cargo ship. Urb signals, and a rope ladder is dropped over the side. The team is shoved into a cargo container, and provided with 2 buckets: one empty, one full of stagnant water. The container is cold, although the smell of rotting flesh is still present- they seem to be stored amidst a pile of metahuman corpses. They spend a few days in the container, with Zuberi using his fire aura to keep them warm, before they are offloaded.
When they are finally ushered out by a silent airport employee, they see that they have arrived in the ghoul nation of Asamando. Feeling somewhat exposed and overarmored, they send Rooster into town to buy them all new clothes. Urb also messages to tell them that he has a Ms. Johnson he wants them to meet, and tells them to dress nice. Jason and Exocet say they are stuck in Azania for now, but will head for Asamando (or another destination) when able.
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