Dramatis Personae
Runners
Lodestone aka Kealt Sanja
Thankyou
Rooster
UltraBoy!
“K”
Tobias Cheney

KS prepares to release a rampaging earth elemental into one of the LoneStar choppers, waiting to see if they will accept his attempt to surrender. Tobias, fearing surveillance, jacks out, but tells Rooster to get over there and pick up his car and TY’s motorcycle, so as not to leave any extra evidence.

UB! launches some grenades at the choppers, in the hope of grounding them, or at least shattering the glass so K can stunball the pilots. However, the pilots seem skilled, and UB! is unable to do significant damage. They return fire with hull mounted miniguns, shredding the upper floor of the house. K is ko’d in the first burst, and left hovering invisibly over the bed. TY dodges out of the room and rushes downstairs, where he begins frantically sawing through the kitchen floor with his monofil chainsaw. UB!, refusing a final offer to surrender, takes cover and lets off another grenade. The helicopters open up again, and K is shredded almost completely in the crossfire. His lifeless body crashes down onto the bed as his spells are broken at the moment of his death.

UB! joins TY in the kitchen, and blows a huge hole through the floor with a large chunk of plastic explosive. They jump in, and fall quite a ways. They are not sure if they are one or two floors down. Meanwhile, on the roof, the heli’s land, and KS is detained, and flown off to a detention center while Swat team’s search the property.

UB! and TY proceed down the elevator shaft, after slicing open the door, and UB! frantically calls the skin noters, hoping for assistance. After they climb and slide about 10 floors down, a door slides open, and a man pulls them in. He appears to be moving somewhat odd and jerkily, and they see a woman sitting with their back to them on a couch who appears frozen in place staring at the wall. The man guides them to a window, opens it, and catches a grappling hook as it sails through from across the alley. He punches a hole through the wall, and wraps the hook around a stud, ignoring the damage he has done to his hand. UB! and TY rappel down the line, into the waiting arms of Ut-Napishtim. He tells them they owe The Exchange a favor.

He gives them bulky coveralls to wear, and loads their weapons into a few large duffel bags. He takes them threw a series of maintenance corridors, down a service elevator, and out a door, where they encounter a surprised Rooster, who has just received a message to drive to this spot. They take off, and TY manages to get them safely out of the area. They disperse to various hideouts in the undercity.

KS is interrogated after a long wait. He demands a lawyer be present, and calls one in. A Detective McCormick questions him about his relationship with K, and what he knows of the events at Arlen Thompson’s. He also asks what KS knows about K’s connection to Andoras Hamshallow. KS mixes truth with some deception and outright lies, to cover for his fellow runners. He tells McCormick as much as he feels he can, and frames two undercity gangers for TY and UB!’s roles in attacking the choppers. McCormick eventually lets him go, but tells him to stay available for further question. KS signs a magical oath of truth after a woman comes in and verifies his official statement. He pays the lawyer and heads home, and orders a new SIN from Ibn Hassan, in case he needs to flee.

The team is worried about what KS may have given up to the cops, and goes into total hiding for a bit, while they heal. Rooster provides a useful crashpad that is not connected to any wanted SINS, as far as he knows. They eventually link up with KS, and decide to take his word that he didn’t sell them out. They get a call from One Shot Wade, telling them it’s time to move on the LS Swat assassinations. The team will be in charge of three of them, while other Problem Children handle two. Wade gives them some surveillance info on the targets.

KS volunteers to take on one target in the uppercity himself, to regain people’s trust. TY, Rooster, and Tobias will tag-team another, while UB! and some of his unofficial ‘UltraDudes’ will take out the last one. KS’ hit goes off without a hitch, as he deathtouches the guy while introducing himself as a ‘new neighbor’ after spotting the target in the parking garage. TY and Tobias team up to hack the door and nearby store cameras on their job, while Rooster distracts the crowd with some enthralling oratory. TY rushes up the stairs as an alarm goes off, and assassinates the target in his bathroom with autofire. Hearing a woman’s scream from another room, he dives through a second story window and flees on his bike. T hacks all their datatrails, and R infiltrates away on the subway, shifting his face as he goes.

UB! has a little more trouble, of course. He blocks the woman’s car with his car as she is leaving her building’s parking lot, and opens up with a machine gun, while the ultradudes use their KE assault rifles. The woman’s car seems to be bulletproofed, however, as she survives the first burst, and accelerates towards them, apparently trying to bash past them. UB! kills her with a second burst, but his car gets t-boned pretty good, and one of the gangers in the back is injured pretty bad. UB! starts driving off, but the cars barely limping along, so he gets in a head-on crash with another car, in order to stop it and then steal it. The injured ganger is ko’d or killed in the crash, he’s not sure, so he orders the other ganger to haul his friend into the new car.

They race off at a better pace this time, although UB! has to cut the driver out of his seatbelt and airbag, and leaves him bleeding on the road. He calls Jaro to arrange a car swap, and get directions to the nearest street doc. They somehow evade detection, and he drops off the ultradudes to get fixed up.

Tobias, getting curious, asks Daedelus what they know about the skin noters, and promises some future work of a major scope for the Exchange in return. Daedelus provides some info, and tells T that they will call on him soon- LoneStar has been indiscriminately rounding up runners, gangers, and others from the undercity and incarcerating them in a new holding facility out by the spaceport while they ID them.

KS and Rooster decide to look into Robert Toomey’s whereabouts, thinking he might have some info on who has the diamonds, and who killed Arlen Thompson. They find out that Toomey hasn’t been seen by hotel staff in a few days, and his room is rented through the end of the month with a permanent “Do Not Disturb.” They head over, with Rooster posing as Toomey’s wayward son, who KS was ‘hired to track down.’ They talk their way into his room, and find his rotting corpse near some drinks at a table. KS tells the employee to call the cops, and Rooster distracts him in the hall, while KS links up with Toomey’s commlink and patches Tobias in to try and steal as much data as possible. They download some packets, but don’t have time to get everything.

KS also takes a look around the scene for anything notable, and sees two drinks on the table, and no signs of forced entry. Apparently it was someone Toomey knew. He also spots the artefact that K had mentioned stealing from Toomey at Thompson’s request, and which K had noted was missing from Thompson’s place. Then, he is escorted downstairs by the hotel employees to await the arrival of LoneStar officers. Rooster flees, feigning distress at his ’father’s’ death.

Next up: another interrogation!