Dramatis Personae
Runners
April O’Mally
Scrounge
Remus Chandrasekharan
Barry Goldstein
Others
Ango Tyrell
Fat Carl

In the uppercity, April O’Malley emerges from her most recent surgery, looking for action. Previously a mild mannered news reporter, she has become more machine than woman. All of this was prompted by an attempted kidnapping which left her bleeding and unconscious in an alley-her last sight, a Japanese man in ragged clothing emerging from the sewers to drive off her attackers with spellcraft. When she awoke in the hospital the first time, she knew she would never be the same-she wanted not only to be able to defend herself, she thirsted for adventure. Luckily her corporate salary as a newscaster for Hermes Corp (and the aid of a mysterious benefactor) allowed her to quickly undergo major surgery, replacing many of her biological components with bio- and cyberware. The mysterious Japanese man had left her a number, and she decides to give him a call.

Meanwhile, Scrounge, a Japanese rat shaman, has word of a new job from his fixer, Ango Tyrell. He’s been doing odd surveillance work since he arrived in Mars City, but it sounds like this job is going to require some muscle. He immediately thinks of Fat Carl’s, the undercity dive bar. Knowing that Carl will be able to recommend someone from the local street gangs, Scrounge decides to go recruiting. He receives a call from the woman he had rescued a few weeks back-random as it was, he had a feeling it would prove to be an important meeting. She’s looking for work, so he directs her to Fat Carl’s to discuss the job.

April arrives quickly on her scooter, to the mockery of a number of Mad Martians gang members outside. Barry Goldstein, a young and tough looking troll, gives her an especially hard time. They bond over fisticuffs, finding that they are well matched at close combat. April recuits Barry for the job as well, with Fat Carl’s assurance that Barry is reliable and useful in a fight.

With the party assembled in the back of the bar, Scounge shares the job details. Ango, as usual, is acting as a middle man, the hiring party is some wageslave scientist in the Weyland-Yutani bioweapons research tower in the uppercity. Apparently this scientist discovered that W-Y is planning on liquidating the facility, and everyone in it, due to some unexpected research developments-some sort of special project has apparently gone wrong. The scientist needs to be extracted-he’ll be able to help the party somewhat, by hacking from the inside, but he’s also going to be busy stealing as much data as possible from W-Y to pay for the job. The party can expect armed resistance from W-Y security staff and the building’s automated defenses. The run needs to happen right away, as the liquidation is scheduled to begin this evening, so there isn’t much time to plan.

Fortunately, Scrounge (being a rat shaman on the run) is familiar with Mars City sewer grid, and with a little computer research, the party locates the area of the sewers below the W-Y corp tower. They manage to sneak there undetected, and Remus Chandrasekaran, their man on the inside, hacks the door and creates a camera feedback loop after he sneaks out of his office and connects to the mainframe, so they can enter thru the garbage disposal level undetected. They enter, but quickly come to the notice of the nearby guardpost. After a short few seconds of gunfire and grenade throwing, the guards are no more (to say nothing about the guardpost). The party continues up a ladder from the back of the ruined post to the main lobby area, after Remus hacks it open. They reach the elevator banks and take the elevator to the 12th floor, the highest available. there, they encounter and slay another corpsec officer at the reception desk. attempting to puzzle out how to get higher up to the controlled research areas, they hear an awfull screeching noise from the elevator shaft behind them. As an elevator car crashed thru the roof and plummets to the bottom of the shaft, accompanied by it’s passengers screams. Remus learns that his rescue party has arrived none too soon: the liquidation has begun.

The party makes their way up the elevator shaft to the previously inaccessible upper floors, once again Remus provides hacking support to clear doors and security systems. The party encounters some nasty biomorphs of some sort in one of the labs (one of the special projects apparently) and then recovers Remus and his recently stolen paydata from the mainframe room. Now, to escape…..

The party heads up the security stairs towards the roof as the building begins to fill with smoke, engaging in a running gun battle with some corpsec forces. once on the roof, they see there is only 1 helicopter remaining, for the corpsec guys to make their escape. With a lucky shot from a sniper rifle, April knocks the sidegunner out the back of the chopper, and the rest of the party hunkers down behind whatever cover they can find as the corp forces return fire. Barry takes some rough hits and collapses. The party kills the rest of the guards and forces the pilot to take off at gunpoint, dragging their unconscious troll friend along.

They are barely off the roof when an explosion shakes the tower and sends a cloud of noxious smoke gushing out of the still open stairwell door. They force the pilot to make for a nearby park, but are get nailed by a missile from another corp chopper before they can set down. The pilot is killed in the landing, but the party manages to escape with only minor injuries (mostly by landing on the still unconscious troll). They take cover around a fountain in the park while the corp chopper strafes the area with machine gun fire. April manages to blow a hole thru the fountain into the sewer below, and the party escapes via the tunnels, with Scrounge leading.

Next up: they try to get paid!