Runners:
Atlas Park
Lodestone
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi

The team, along with Jane, flies safely to Ife, the seat of the Yoruba kingdom’s power and the location of King Adegoke’s palace. They are met at the private airstrip by palace security, searched thoroughly, and allowed in. They have been provided with a guest suite if they wish to freshen up before viewing the items that will be up for auction, or if they decide to stay the night.

They head to the auction, and make out around 5 different groups of buyers looking at items. The supposed thief, Lockwood, is there, and they try to subtly observe him, gaining some info on who some of the other buyers are. They include representatives of the Apep Consortium and the Atlantean Foundation. The item that they are looking for is not here, however. Lockwood is near a large map that LS notices is readable (and contains even more detail) in its astral form. When LS points it out, Jane seems interested, and wants to go back to their room to contact her employers. The team has also acquired a robed guide, who seems to be awakened, and they notice a pretty significant physical security setup while they are guided around the palace.

Jane contacts her employers, who tell her not to apprehend Lockwood, as they are not sure he is the thief himself. They still hope he will lead them to the stolen item. However, they are also excited about the map, and authorize Jane to gain entry to the auction and bid on it. The team finds out that the only way to get into the auction is to present an appropriate gift to the King, and they currently lack such a gift as Zuberi won’t part with his dragon tooth. They decide to sleep on it.

In the middle of the night, Atlas is on watch and notices a commotion. A pair of palace guards burst through their door while two more cover them from the hallway. Atlas easily disarms the first one, but Rooster and the rest of the team manage to talk the situation down without further violence. It seems that a small statue of significant importance to Adegoke has been stolen, and guards are sweeping all the guest rooms. The team agrees to a search, and, finding nothing, the guards leave. The team decides that finding this statue (or the theif) might be their ticket into the auction. Jane decides to stay at the palace to allay suspicion about their involvement.

The team heads back to Lagos, after they contact Kayin, who says he might have a lead. They pay him a reasonable fee, and he puts them in touch with a local fixer named Hippo, who he says may know more. The team heads out to Lagos University area to find the bar Hippo works out of. They negotiate a deal: the non-Africans in the group will deliver a small package to Lagos Island (it’s easier for foreignors to gain access), and he will give them some info. Atlas, Rooster, and LS head out for the island while Zuberi and TY wait in the bar.

They arrive and drop off the package without any trouble, although they are impressed by the security situation on the island: its the first place in Lagos that’s felt remotely controlled. There is some local air traffic, prominently displayed megacorp logos, a decent amount of skyscrapers, office buildings and fancy stores, and a large amount of patrolling metahuman security. They also notice that there are a lot of foreignors here, which they haven’t seen much of since arrival, and security seems to be actively keeping locals out if they don’t have specific business on-island. Atlas insists on getting LS fit for a white armored suit to match his, so they take a minute to take measurements and then head back.

They arrive at the bar late in the night, and Hippo gives them the deets: the thief is a local Igbo ork named Silence. Normally, Hippo wouldn’t sell out a fellow Igbo, let alone a fellow ork, and he doesn’t want it getting out that he did. But, he also doesn’t want Yoruba palace guards rampaing around the city stirring up trouble either. So he tells the team of a brothel that they might find Silence at if he recently acquired some money. The team heads out there, and LS inquires with his newly bound guidance spirit as to wether they will find Silence inside.

Getting a mixed result, they rush in and chase Silence out a window, across some neighboring rooftops, and through a small market. Rooster stays at the brothel to distract some palace guards that he notices approaching. He delays them significantly, but they ko and detain him after the priest who accompanies the guards sees through his ruse. Using spirits and sheer strength, they eventually corner him and Atlas incapacitates and ko’s him. They haul him back to the brothel. TY manages to bribe the local area boys to stand down from confronting the gaurds, and the team swaps Rooster for Silence, after LS reads his mind and finds the statue’s location.

The team hightails it to the compound that Silence’s employer, hoping to beat the palace guards, and waking Rooster up on the way. They talk their way into meeting with the family elder, and LS, using info gained from Silence’s brain, plays on his fears and superstitions to convince him to hand over the statue (his son was the one who commisioned the theft). The team recovers the statue as the palace guards arrive, and the residents reseal the compound gate. The guards tell the team that they will have to come back to the palace to explain their continued interference. They agree, and luckily for them, Adegoke, impressed by their efforts, grants them tickets to the forthcoming auction, which he tells them has been moved to a corporate facility on Lagos Island for security reasons. Success! However, the future does not look bright for Silence, and the team gains some local notoriety for handing him over.

Runners:
Atlas Park
Lodestone
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi

Rooster takes a cab into Nyamkopon, the Asamandan capitol, to do some shopping. The city is impressively well layed out, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. After Rooster purchases appropriate clothing for everyone except Zuberi (who refuses all offers), he meets up with the team at the airport, they change, and they head into town, where Atlas gets an expensive hotel room with a secure safe for all their gear.

They wait for a few hours, and head to the 99 Bar, a ritzy local club frequented by non-ghoul locals and visitors in society’s upper echelons. Some research has indicated that the club prides itself on its privaxcy and security (as well as its dress code), all of which is proven true upon their arrival. Formidable looking ghoul security checks their weapons and ammo (including TY’s cybergun ammo), and a hostess insists on LS adding a loaned tie to his blazer. Zuberi is forced to wait outside, as he is far too uncouth to gain entry.

They follow the hostess through the smoky club to a private room in back, and order food and drinks after finding out it is all comped. There they meet a woman named Jane, who introduces herself as their Ms. Johnson. She hires them to accompany her to Lagos, a feral freecity enclosed by the Yoruba kingdom in former Nigeria. There, they will protect and assist her in the search for an item stolen from her employer, and track down the elf responsible for stealing it, a man named Samriel Lockwood. The team tells her they can leave that evening, after stopping by the hospital to get vaccinated and stock up on medical supplies, at Jane’s advice.

Atlas contacts Jason Park and tells him and Exocet that there is a room waiting for them at the hotel, and leaves info at the desk for them to be allowed in upon arrival. Then, the team hits up the hospital & heads to the airport. TY gets a new lighter suit of armor, as his milspec suit isn’t going to travel well. They also leave behind all their various explosives & whatnot.

They hop on a rickety looking manually-piloted plane, flown by a skilled bush pilot named Innocent Dobiri, and are flown into Muhammad Intl Airport in Lagos, barely avoiding some AA fire on the way in with Baelor’s assistance. Jane hires them cabs after the local Area Boys shake them down (Zuberi gives them a hard time, but the team pays up), and they head to the port district of Apapa to their (relatively) secure hotel. After doing a sweep, the team decides to split up and visit both the Dudu Dudu Oja Arms Market and the Amulet Market to look for info & gather supplies.

TY, Zuberi, and Jane head to the Arms Market. On the way, they encounter some local thugs kidnapping a group of youths off a bus in stalled traffic in broad daylight. One of the youths escapes and runs towards them, and Jane is about to intervene when Zuberi fatally combusts the youth, effectively defusing the situation in the most horrifying way possible. He tells Jane that he has done the best he could for the girl by sending her properly to the Dark Realm, and TY chimes in that both the girl and the team would surely have been killed had there been a firefight. Jane is outraged and disturbed, but they continue with their mission, as she can also see that they aren’t totally wrong. Even if Zuberi’s methods are disturbing.

Upon reaching the Arms Market, TY is in heaven. There are weapons of every sort, up to and including used jets and tanks. He also makes the disturbing discovery that Onotari Arms is a Saeder-Krupp subsidiary, meaning that they just framed S-K in the dracoform killing. They stock up on ammo, ask around, and are told to check the Amulet Market or the Leventis Store for more info.

The other team heads to the amulet market. Using his new contacts in The Order of St George, LS finds a buyer for the dragon bits that they obtained. They negotiate, get a good price, and also get some info: there is a man named Kayin who is a local fixer and fence that they should talk to. He deals in high level antiquities, amongst other things, and has his ear to the ground regarding local action. He is also a Hawala, and so is considered fairly trustworthy. He works out of the Leventis Market in Apapa.

The team’s meet back at the hotel, and LS helps talk Jane through some of her distress around Zuberi’s actions earlier. Rooster gets drunk with some of the local guards, and Atlas works out. They wake the next morning, and head to Leventis while Jane makes some calls. They find Kaying easily enough, and he agrees to give them some info in exchange for a favor. They are to retrieve a small metal mask from the abandoned Surelere district, and in turn he will get them invited to a viewing of the items that are up for sale in an upcoming antiquities auction. Maybe they will find what they seek there. The team agrees, and heads out.

To enter Surelere, they cross an enourmous trash mountain that seems to mark the district border. As they move further in, the team’s awakened members notice that the local manafield has a distrubing and evil feel. They cannot focus their full energies on their craft, and even Baelor (who is concealing their movement astrally) seems to be weakening. TY also keeps thinking that he sees something at the edge of his vision, but everyone else writes it off as his usual paranoia.

They begin rushing as they progress further and the background count worsens: apparently the massive death toll in this district during the VITAS I plague has a major effect. Atlas kicks in the door on the burned shell of a house, finds what looks to be some sort of animist shrine, and grabs the mask. When he does, a large number of rotting, diseased spirits of man manifest all around them. TY is temporarily paralyzed by a vision of his village when it was destroyed, and regains some memories of his youth, as well as some flashes of visions of his major cyber-reconstructions following his villages destruction. The rest of the team wisely flees.

Atlas picks Rooster up, and Baelor does the same to LS, as they are lagging. The team hoofs it while firing back at the spirits with guns and spells. As they flee, the tide of spirits behind them grows, seeming to flow in from side streets and buildings. Zuberi is sure that none of those who died here ever received appropriate rites, and decides that he must return someday and cleanse this district of the vengeful dead. They are almost back to the trash wall when they see a toxic shaman in bone armor borne atop a palanquin by 4 spirits. LS tries to scan his mind, but he counters it with a wave of his spinal column staff, and launches a massive acid wave at the team. It fries a number of the spirits, and Zuberi plows up a huge chunk of road to try to further slow their advance, but the team (aside from Rooster and Atlas) take severe damage. They manage to escape over the wall with Atlas and Baelor manhauling everyone over the top.

Most of the team head for Kayin, seeking revenge for what they feel was a setup. However, they find him calm and reasonable, and he gets them discount medical care, and tells them that now he knows that they are capable. Kayin and Zuberi also bond over Zuberi’s plans to clean up Surelere. Good to his word, he also gets them all an invite to King Adegoke’s palace to view the items that will be on the docket at the upcoming auction. The team heads for the Apapa medical center to recuperate, and LS astrally initiates with the OSG while they heal. Jane is thrilled to hear of their progress, although once again somewhat horrified by the goings-on in this city. They prepare to fly to Adegoke’s palace.

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.

Runners:
Atlas Park
Lodestone
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi

The team gets started on Ibn Hassan’sjob. Nomusais still mysteriously absent, which freaks TY out a bit, but everyone else talks him down, since Nomusa passed on some of his Azanian contacts before vanishing. The team gets three names from Hassan.
Nicolette Ecorj: The overall head of immigration and inspections at the Cape Town spaceport.
Jaime Esperanza: One of Ecorj’s division heads, in charge or organizing and assigning inspections teams.
Abdul Suleiman: Another of Ecorj’d division heads, oversees immigration quota enforcement. Is rumored to be an ICCB plant in the supposedly neutral body governing the spaceport.

In reality of course, the spaceport is controlled by corporate interests. But, they think they can use his position as a spy againt him, if they can prove it. Hassan tells the team that he want these 3 officials compromised in order to allow a group of about 4 dozen people fleeing persecution in the Caliphate to emigrate to Mars. This group will also include a half dozen prominent dissidents, who Hassan is worried will be targeted for assassination, either on Earth, during transport, or on Mars, if the fact that they are present is discovered. So the team needs to bend quotas for the bulk of the group (or smuggle them), and keep the prominent figures entirely off record.

They start with Ecorj. Exocetis able to scare up a little bit of info: Ecorj is looking to move up in the world, and is mulling a run for city council. She is popular with local conservatives, and has a ‘tough on crime & immigration’ record. Esparanze is rumored to skim off shipments with some frequency, although he is careful not to steal from Megacorps. Suleiman is widely thought to be an ICCB spy, and to occasionally use his position to smuggle ICCB agents off planet, as well as gaining travel info on ICCB citizens and regional dissidents.

LS, using his philanthropist SIN, attends some Cape Town society events, and discovers some evidence that Ecorj is associating with Humanis affiliates in her run for office. He attends a conservative party fundraiser, and confronts her with images of her in the company of some rumored Humanis members that a rival politicain gives him. She takes him to a private room, and asks what he wants. He lays out the general outline of the plan, and suggests that she look the other way on the day in question. She says that if he can prove the allegations against her subordinates, she will be willing, as she can then blame them for any irregularities. LS agrees.

They go after Esperanza first, as Ecorj agrees to give him the night off and tells them which hotel he’ll be at. She also gives an overtly racist description of Esparanza’s ‘type’, who Rooster plans to impersonate, using his various magical disguise abilities. He decides to not go for the racist bits, and changes to look like a female elf. He meets Esparanza in the bar, as planned, and takes him up to his room, where TY is waiting. They strongarm him about his skimming off of shipments, and tell him that they will be in touch when they need a favor. He caves quickly after TY fires his silenced implanted submachine gun into the floor next to his head. They exit, Rooster shifting back and changing into Esparanze’s spare suit. They tell Ecorj that he admitted to the skimming, although they didn’t get definite proof.

Meanwhile, Atlas has gotten himself kicked out of the bar for running prostitutes without the establishment’s ok. The goons who boot him tell him that his girl works for them now, and Atlas enjoys a silent laugh as he exits. The team meets back up, and contacts Ecorj again to find out about Suleiman. He apparently lives in the secure spaceport base housing, as most employees have to, and rarely leaves. They plan to kidnap him, after which LS will deepscan his mind, and pass info onto Rooster, who will impersonate him on the day in question. They will keep Suleiman dosed with Laes, to make sure he doesn’t retain any of this. Then, they will stage a beating/mugging after Rooster (in disguise) leaves, to explain Suleiman’s memory loss. They begin preparing and acquiring the necessary supplies.

After social hacking their way into the secure housing complex, Rooster and LS execute the plan succesfully. LS relays necesary info to Rooster over ‘link while keeping Suleiman stunned. Rooster gets the shipment through, after making sure that Ecorj is looking the other way and Esparanza won’t inspect it. He passes proof that Suleiman is a spy to Ecorj as promised and leaves early. They dose Suleiman and sneak back out. LS calls Hassan to tell him the mission is complete, and Hassan tells him that his debt is paid.

The team then begins preparing for the dracoform assassination. They purchase train tickets to New Hlobane, the capitol of the Zulu Nation, to try to find someone to pay them for pissing off Mujaji. They decide to hold off on contactin Lofwyr for now, as they are unsure if involving a dragon in a job for a dragon-killing society is a good idea.

Runners:
Atlas Park
Lodestone
Nomusa Iblis
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi

The team continues their escape, with Zuberi shaping a hole in the community gate to allow the van through. They engage in a running firefight with another pair of Shiawase security drones, and after defeating them decide they need a new vehicle, as theirs is somewhat perforated. They head towards the harbor warehouses to find one. While TY steals a ride, Nomusa notices an SUV that seems to have been following them. He attacks, and LS sends Baelor to assault the occupants while Zuberi shapes the road around the SUV’s tires to prevent their escape. TY gets the new van, and the team loads up, while Baelor chases off the 2 survivors from the tail car.

They head out of the city, and meet the pickup car at the location Ezekiel Grey assigned. However, they seem to have picked up a helicopter tail as well, and a sniper in the chopper blows a hole through DeHaan’s chest (apparently Shiawase doesn’t want him defecting…). LS quickly stabilizes him with a massively overcast heal spell, and they hide in the back of the van. Atlas provides a human shield and soaks a second sniper round, while Zuberi flings grenades at the cloaked chopper, and Grey’s team fires with assault rifles.

Grey’s team brings a 2nd car out of hiding nearby, and one of them switches position with DeHaan, zipping himself into the duffel bag, hoping to deceive the sniper in the chopper. LS summons Baelor to assault the chopper, but he is banished shortly before he manifests. The runner and the 2 cars Grey sent split up and head in 3 different directions, trying to lose the tail. Through reckless driving, and good use of covered lots and such, they manage to escape with minimal additional harassment, and get to necessary medical facilities.

Grey gives LS a pay bonus for his quick thinking on the heal spell, and says that it looks like DeHaan will survive. The team heals up at Universal Omnitech’s expense, and gets paid. They head out, although Nomusa stays behind, to receive some sort of experiemental treatment. Grey tells LS he will be in touch with more work as needed.

LS also hears from Madame Gavral, via the DIVE forum. She puts him in contact with the The Order of St George, which seems to be an order dedicated to slaying dragons and their kin. The Order says that LS will be inducted as a member and gain access to their lodge if he completes a task for them: kill a dracoform allied with Mujaji (the Cape Town-based great dragon). The Order has the job all planned out, and offers to provide some funds for LS to hire a team. He tells them he will be in touch. Zuberi is excited about any jobs involving killing, and TY hates Mujaji, so LS only really has to convince Rooster and Atlas with money. They decide to contact the Zulu Nation (elves opposed to Mujaji), and possibly Lofwyr, who has been squabbling with Mujaji for quite some time.

LS also hears from Ibn Hassan, who is finally calling in the favor owed. He says that there is a group of 40-50 Middle Easterners who wish to emigrate to Mars (under Hassan’s protection) to escape persecution in the Caliphate. There are a few dissident leaders in the group that Hassan is worried might be targeted for assassination also. So, Hassan provides info about 3 immigration officials, including a spy for the ICCB (the Caliphate court), who he wants blackmailed or otherwise forced into allowing the refugees through the Cape Town spaceport, without recording the passage of the prominent figures. LS tells him he will get to work. Hassan says he has a week to prepare.

Runners:
Atlas Park
Lodestone
Nomusa Iblis
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi

The Mars runners spend hours waiting in the uppercity Evo hq, while Nikolai Morozov arranges transport off planet. Atlas also calls up Riahna Kelp to set up bribes to get them through spaceport security without hassle. Jason Park and Exocet turn up as well, to get in on the escape. They grabbed TY’s armor on the way, which is happy about, although his bike is staying.

Morozov tells them he has a secure space in a freight container that is going out that night. The 6 people will be loaded into packing crates, with an oxygen tank, a water bag, some high calorie MRE’s, and a catheter setup. They will be packed in the middle of a load of freight, glide through security if Kelp paid her bribes right, and get on the next ship to Earth. They load all the gear in a 7th crate, and nail everyone in.

The team members all go through stages of panic and claustrophobia during the lengthy journey. They spend 8 hours waiting in the warehouse before being loaded into an elevator car. They spend half a day ascending the beanstalk, and are loaded onto a spacecraft. Their crate is held magnetically to a wall track for the journey, they spend about a day rapidly accelerating, suffering some bruising from the high-g’s. After that, they coast for quite a while before beginning to slow, hitting some high-g’s again at the end.

They wait a few hours longer, then begin descending back into a nice, familiar 1 g- a little higher than Mars, it feels subtly of home. After another half day in the elevator, they hit the ground, are offloaded, and are put aboard a truck. They smell diesel fumes, and the ocean. They also hear South African dialects, and feel the heat. TY recognizes it as Cape Town, the shipping capital (and 2nd largest city) in Azania. Rooster alters himself to appear African. They spend some more time in traffic in the truck, and are met by Nomusa and Zuberi, who uncrate them (Zuberi by warping open the particle board). They load into a rental van and head back to portside slums to Nomusa’s hideout. Exocet takes off separately to set herself up somewhere.

After laying low a while, they get some work from Ezekiel Grey- they are to pick up a man from the DeBeer’s Omnitech building downtown, bring him to a gated community, enter the house of a Shiawase exec named Stephen Dehaan, kill the man they picked up, grab Dehaan (who should be cooperative) and get out. They are to ensure that no cameras are active inside the house, but are free to used whatever violence necessary as long as no one knows they took Dehaan with them. They are to use a gene scanner to positively ID Dehaan, and are to leave the dead man’s face intact.

TY steals a van, and they head out. They pick up the man, who turns out to be a mindless clone of Dehaan, as far as they can tell. He has apparently been implanted with cyberware to match Dehaan’s. They drive to the community, Rooster bluffs his way past the gate guard, and they park at the house. TY sends 2 drones in to kill the cameras, which triggers an alarm. Zuberi warps open the walls, and Atlas races in with the clone in a duffel bag. He pulls him out, snaps his neck, and stuffs the real Dehaan in the bag. He then hauls him to the van.

Meanwhile, local security is approaching, in the form of some low-skill private security, and some fancy ruthenium-coated Shiawase drones. LS summons Baelor, who makes quick work of the rent-a-cops, but the drones shred him with bullets pretty significantly before Zuberi beats them into submission. TY fires up the van, reloads his drones, gets everyone aboard, and heads out.

Next up: will they escape?

Runners:
Nomusa Iblis
Zuberi

After meeting the mysterious man in a suit, Nomusa, Zuberi, and Horza decided to stick together, as they made a good team. Although, as the man in the suit had melted their friend Qualicus, and sent their driver Thankyou to Mars, they were low on muscle and on foot for the time being. Their memories of the whole encounter remain somewhat fuzzy: some sort of mind-alterting spell perhaps? They do remember that the man made short work of a Zulu commando squad, as well as Qualicus, just to get the diamonds, so they decide not to investigate him further for the time being.

The three remaining team members have been working together since then, on various odd jobs in and around Azania, especially in the Cape Town area. They have been working for Ezekiel Grey (a Mr. Johnson for a DeBeers-Omnitech subsidary, who had previously hired the team to clear some Cape Town slums to make way for redevelopment), Arkady (Horza’s merc company contact), and The Butcher (Nomusa’s fixer). Recently, Arkady passed Horza a tip about what went wrong on the mission that wiped out her merc company, and she took off to investigate. All offers of help were refused, as she felt this was something she had to do herself.

Now lacking sniper cover, as well as a driver and a combat monster, Nomusa and Zuberi have been taking any small jobs that come their way, Grey is still running contracts for DBO black ops involving their ongoing turf war with Shiawase. The runners are laying low in the Cape Town port slums, trying to stay off the radar of any Zulu hit squads that might come asking what exactly happened to their commando squad a few months back…

Grey recently contacted them to tell them that their old friend ThankYou would be returning soon, and giving them details of where to pick him and his team up.

Runners:
UltraBoy!

After UB!‘s arrest, he is detained for a while in a room. He is bound to a chair with hand and foot manacles and chains. His ’ware is all still deactivated. There is a window in the room. Jaro is in a similar looking setup on the other side. She appears injured and somewhat dazed, but doesnt look to be in active danger. He stares at her, but it seems like she can’t see him (1-way glass, perhaps?). He tries to get her attention by shouting, but it seems the room is soundproofed as well.

After a few hours, a man and a woman in Knight Errant uniforms enter. They tell UB! that their operation has been a great success; not only have they swept the streets of many of the low-level gangers, they have picked up a number of the big players as well, including One Shot Wade. They direct UB!‘s attention toward Wade’s driver, Jaro, as proof. They tell UB! that he can’t do anything for Wade now, but he can certainly help yourself, and he can help Jaro too if he cooperates.

They tell UB! that they appreciate the initiative he showed in going on the news show, and they know that he is a respected figure in the undercity, as well as a capable leader, as evidenced by the loyalty of the Ultradudes. They tell him that they want to put together a high level black-ops squad, similar to the Prime Runners, but minus the media circus. They’ll be working for KE, in secret, to take out high value targets in and around Mars City. They tell UB!: “you’ll be respected. You’ll be well-payed. You’ll be helping people. And, if you prove yourself in the field (which they have every feeling that you will), you’ll get your own team. Keep collateral damage to a minimum, and don’t let anyone know who you work for, and you could go a long way.”

Of course, if he fails to cooperate, things will go very differently for him. For Jaro, too.

But if he works with them, they see no reason they couldn’t eventually help set him up with his own undercity turf: he could be a real unifying factor for the remaining streetgang elements, something to attract all the various individuals missed in the sweep. And it would help KE out to have a friend in a position of authority down there- keeping everything in line. And, of course, if he keeps cooperating, things could go very well for Jaro too. KE has it’s own judges of course, and they can make sure that those judges take a lenient view of her activities. One suit says: “She’ll probably be real grateful to you when you get her out, right?”

They tell him that they’ll let him think on it for a while, and leave.

What’s his answer going to be when they come back?

This is UB!’s dream come true.

When the KE reps return UB! says:

“I’ll do it… but I want all the merchandising rights!”

Then he notices that little nagging feeling in his brain, the one that starts squirming when he finds himself securely inside someone’s pocket… and there’s still the skin-note-people to worry about.

The KE suits accept UB!’s conditions, although they will insist on final editorial control to prevent the leak of any sensitive info. But UB! has full merch rights & incomes. A bright future awaits, no doubt….

Dramatis Personae
Runners
Lodestone
Rooster
UltraBoy!
Tobias Cheney
Thankyou
Atlas Park

The team drives around a bit and finds a bar while Tobias hacks street level cameras to follow the car that left with the algae-suit team. He tracks it to a multi-level parking structure, but is unable to find any active nodes within. He then tracks it to a junkyard, where it looks to have gotten crushed and cubed. However, only one guy leaves the car at the junkyard. Tobias crashes for a while, having not slept in a bit.

Lodestone is able to pick up the trail of the other 3 at the parking lot, and with Baelor’s help, tracks them to the spaceport, where they ascend the elevator, after meeting up with the fourth man. He gets feeling it is 3 men and 1 woman. TY and UB! head to the junkyard to investigate there while Rooster and Atlas head out to the spaceport. At the spaceport, A and R contact Riahna Kelp, who helps them get some info: 4 pretty hardass looking Japanese people in suits with no luggage came through at the time when LS placed them there. So, it seems that the Turing Army has either gotten a bit more pro, or some corp is backing them, or using their name. The team speculates that Renraku might be involved, as Daedelus emerged in their arcology. R and A rejoin the others at the junkyard.

They pay the guy there for some vid footage, and a look at the cube. It seems that the Japanese guy ditched the car and took a cab to the spaceport, paying all with credsticks. They sprayed the car down with Cleaner Cleaner again, preventing LS from picking up any useful info.

Meanwhile, Tobias calls Elton Massey to try to find out anything he can about the flight that the Japanese folks left on. T quickly realizes that Massey is trying to stall him while tracing his call- Tobias tells him he is disappointed in him and breaks the link. He then calls One Shot Wade to warn him that the guns that T and TY sold to the Problem Children might have some problems that require a software update. Wade is understandably worried and requests more info. Tobias admits that the guns might not be able to shoot KE cops, but that he can send out a software update.

He spends a few hours frantically programming a workaround, and then sends it to Wade, who says he will get it out as quick as he can. However, Tobias and the rest of the team shortly receive a message blast from Wade and others warning of a massive KE raid-they seem to know where everybody is hiding out, and where all the weapons are. Wade calls Tobias in a panic, and curses him out for selling out the gang. The rest of the team goes into panic mode. LS flees his hideout, headed for Lihua Wan’s compound in the uppercity after Ibn Hassan warns him that the crackdown is not limited to streetgang turf: KE weapons have spread throughout the undercity.

LS tells Atlas, Rooster, and TY to meet him there, but leaves out Tobias and UB!. Tobias creates a trap using a web of mines and a node broadcasting his ‘Tobias’ SIN at the undercity warehouse that he just rented out. He then goes into full stealth mode, and hides in a dark alley while sirens blare around him and choppers and drones buzz overhead. The rest of the team races for the uppercty, and potential safety.

UB! tries to round up the Ultradudes, but Jaro is busy driving Wade, trying to flee the city since their safehouse network seems compromised. In the end, only Mike shows up. UB! is contacted by a reporter Janelle Haversly, who asks if he is the head of the Ultradudes. He answers “Hell Yes!” She tells him that she got his contact from some undercity sources who said he might know what was going on down there: KE is blocking access as best they can. She offers payment for an exclusive, if UB! gets up to the Hermes Entertainment tower. UB! agrees, and brings Mike. They arrive and are ushered into makeup before their segment. UB! strongarms some producers into paying upfront, and refuses to remove his helmet, or the latex mask underneath. He also gives Mike shades and a bandana to obscure his face.

They are interviewed, and T forwards some edited data to make it look like Massey was working directly with the notorious terrorist Hamshallow, rather that with Tobias (though they are actually one and the same). UB! reveals this on air, as well as some general details of the gun smuggling op. Haversly is thrilled with the scoop, and pays well. However, as they break for commercial, she warns UB! that he better flee, as KE is sending cars to detain him, and Hermes security will only be able to hold them off so long. They provide a car, and UB! and Mike flee.

KE is quick to respond with an Emergency Broadcast declaring martial law in the undercity, since various instigators are trying to stir up trouble during this temporary and necesary sweep. KE flacks confirm that the corp sold guns to undercity criminals, but claims they were non-functional and allowed them to track and observe these same criminals, and now to successfully crack down. They deny having any dealings with Hamshallow, and claim this is a malicious piece of hacking on the part of desparate criminals. They id Hamshallow as an alias of Tobias, who they claim is a sociopath manipulating an old friendship with a former Ares exec (Patrick Henry Hughes). They also announce the the team members are all wanted under 1 or more SINS for questioning as associates of Hamshallow. They provide descriptive details and trid footage of the team in their smuggling hideout, which appears to have been monitored.

Seeing this on the news, the rest of the team abandons the Wan compound plan for the greater safety of the uppercity Evo Corporation office, after Nikolai Morozov suggests that they may want to flee Mars for a while, until things cool off. Morozov says he can protect them until he can find a way to get them off planet. They agree, and hightail it to the tower, where they are ushered into a waiting room while a serious looking individual leaves with Rooster’s car.

Tobias, also seeing these broadcasts, callsDaedelus and asks for an out. Daedelus requests and receives access to Tobias’ ’link, and sets up a HUD to show him how to get out of town. Tobias flees, and meets up with Marlowe in the desert. They then head for an Exchange safehouse away from the city. Tobias decides to exist under the Hamshallow SIN fulltime now.

UB! tries to get in on that too, but can’t shake the KE cars tailing him to get to the undercity. He calls Tamanous too, but they say they can’t help with a hot pursuit, and to only call back if he loses the cops. UB! passes the wheel to Mike, and blasts the car behind them with a series of grenades. He kills their engine (and shreds the car), but not before return fire has heavily damaged their car and critically injured Mike. UB! and Mike share a moment, swearing fealty to the Ultradudes unto death. Then UB! flees on foot, throwing his duffel full of explosives into the car and leaving a grenade linked to his PAN.

He triggers just as two more cars go by, destroying the Hermes car entirely and sending the two KE cars crashing into nearby buildings. UB! is lanuched through the air, slams into a building facade, and slides to the ground. He rights himself, and flees on foot, but he’s picked up two more tails. All visible predestrians and traffic in the area is fleeing away from the scene, so he can’t even grab a hostage or steal a car. He heads down in an alley, but is quickly cornered. The cops tell him to drop his weapons and surrender, and he won’t be harmed. They tell him his friends have abandoned him. They tell him it doesn’t have to end like this.

UB! throws his grenade launcher out, and surrenders. He decides he would rather live to fight another day than go out in a blaze of glory. Plus, he wants to know what Ultraman thought of his trid interview!

Next up: What compromises will UB! be forced to make to survive? Will the rest of the team be able to get off planet? Will Tobias find happiness as Hamshallow?

Dramatis Personae
Runners
Lodestone
Rooster
UltraBoy!
Tobias Cheney
Thankyou
Atlas Park

While still on the way back to the city from the launch platform, Daedelus contacts Tobias and requests that the team investigate the recent Turing Army assault on it’s warehouse combpound. Daedelus saw it coming, but was surprised at the ferocity and sophistication of the attack, and wants to know who is backing the TA financially (or operating under their name). Tobias agrees, and the rest of the team goes along, although Lodestone is still freaked out about working for a free AI with unknown goals.

Tobias also receives a call from Patrick Henry Hughes, who seems mightily distressed. It turns out that the satellite that they just stole and launched was owned by an Ares subsidiary, which the team didn’t investigate at all. Also, Ares investigators have determined that both an Ares HERF gun and an Ares Thunderstruck Gauss rifle were used in the truck hijacking. And, knowing that PHH recently sold a HERF gun and gauss supplies to a runner contact, they have been pressuring him to bring Tobias in. PHH subtly hints that the line they are speaking on in being monitored, and that T SHOULD NOT come in, were that not obvious. Tobias says he will be there shortly, hangs up, sells his apartment, and prepares to abandon his former life.

After thinking if over a bit, and talking with Daedelus, T decides not to try to rescue PHH at the moment, as it seems near impossible, and perhaps not necessary. Atlas also thinks it unlikely that PHH will be killed, probably just demoted and kept under guard. Daedelus agrees to try to pull any possible strings to help, but warns Tobias that it could end up burning him. Tobias accepts the consequences.

The team then investigates the attack. After Rooster sweettalks (and bribes) some KE officers, UB!, Rooster, Lodestone, and Atlas investigate, while Tobias does some hacking recon and TY runs drone lookouts and hangs in the getaway ride. They piece together that there were 2 suicide bombers, who appear to have had facility access, and that they were followed up by a car bomb that hit the front gate, and then another car full of attackers. The facility is heavily burned, and the remaining walls are covered in explosive scarring and bullet impact craters. There is a lot of destroyed tech around, but Tobias can’t pick up any nodes: possibly they used an EMP bomb (smart when fighting an AI?).

Lodestone tracks the survivors of the attacking party astrally, and working together with Tobias, locates their apparent hideout, a longterm motel in Striking Crane Clan turf. The team heads there, and noticing a bomb on the door, sneaks in through a window. Noone is there, and Lodestone has lost their astral trail. It appears that they filled the tub with some sort of algae, and changed into some sort of astrally masking clothing while inside, and then left again via car, based on footage Tobias is able to pull off nearby cameras. They seem to have used this place as a staging area for the bomb building and attack, as their are empty ammo boxes and bomb manufacture residue about. They also appear to have carefully erased any trace biological material with Cleaner Cleaner, preventing much in the way of further id’ing on site.

Tobias plans to track them further via street cams, and try to locate their next destination. However, the level of sophistication shown here suggests a significantly greater level of professionalism than the TA has exhibited in the past. They report in to Daedelus, and move out, after disarming the doorbomb.