Dramatis Personae
Runners
“K”
Harmony Craig Bottow
Ivan the Jackle
Rolf Soren Ramis
Tobias Cheney
Others
UltraBoy!
Daedelus
Patrick Henry Hughes
Tamany Clark
Madame Gavral
One Shot Wade
Remus Chandrasekharan
Minkwave

The team has spent some time apart after the spaceport run. Everyone got high quality news SINS, as promised, with the background of their choice. Everyone excpet Tobias opted for varying degress of surgery to mask their identity: iris and fingerprint alterations, skin dyes, etc. Tobias gets most of his fingerprints removed, in a way designed to look like he melted them off in an industrial accident. Tobias spends some time working on an art piece of a giant LoneStar figure crushing smaller figures representing all the undercity gangs, but Minkwave is unimpressed, and Tobias decides to leave it unsigned and donate it to her gallery. Where it now serves as a coatrack. Tobias and HCB desing and spec out the jetpacks they have been talking about for ages, and Tobias welds together a magnet-gripped lance for HCB.

Which HCB needs, of course, for the third round of his Yakuza Combat Biking Trials! This is a jousting round, and he must win four matches to succeed, and be one step closer to owning the bike (and having an additional source of income). Unfortunately, his bad luck causes an epic crash partway into the first match, and he is eliminated. The Yakuza are disappointed, but not in deadly way (yet) so he’ll have to try again next time. HCB and Tobias decide to hold off on the jetpacks until they get some money.

Ivan has been in hiding, in the maintenance room off of the sewers which Daedelus guided him to. He has been working to kick his rampant alcoholism, and has succeeded in reducing it’s effects and severity. He is desparate for guidance, feeling bereft without his car, and still feeling somewhat betrayed by Tobias. When Daedelus gets ahold of him with his new SIN, he chooses to be a mechanic, and goes to work for Tamany in the junkyard. Tamany, recognizing Ivan, hooks him up with a cheap van, which he can work to pay off, and work on in his spare time. Ivan is thrilled. Daedelus also lets Ivan know that it is working on setting up a Mars City Exchange (similar to the Seattle version) and enlists Ivan’s enthusiastic aid. Ivan also gives Daedelus unfettered access to all his sensory data, all the time. Ivan calls Wade, who seems somewhat distant and upset about the crackdown. Ivan tries to get him to help with the Exchange, but Wade seems nonplussed. Ivan is imagining a life beyond the Problem Children-they think too small for his new ambitions….

K has been laying low in Madame Gavral/Arlen Thompson’s company, learning some powerful new spells. He also attends HCB’s failed joust (along with Ivan), and gets some info on metaplanar quests, which he plans to pursue further in the future.

Rolf has been attempting to gain some standing in the Vory MMA matches held in the eastern undercity, with some success. He initially struggled to find the location of the events, but eventually got sent in the right direction, and managed to join in an amateur night bout. He handily defeated his first two opponents, even though it seemed the crowd was firmly against him. Unfortunately, after an epic match, he was ko’d by his (heavily injured) third opponent. Due to their enjoyble performance, both were invited back for future demos, although Rolf may find himself playing the heel, given his poor crowd interaction.

UB! has been trying to cement his position in the gang, and make as rapid a rise through the ranks as possible. He has been taking on as many cleanup jobs as possible in former BS turf, and thus far has evaded capture by the ever more present LoneStar.

Patrick Henry Hughes calls Tobias a few weeks after the spaceport, and lets him know about a new job that Ares is sending his way. Apparently, the Ares subsidiary Knight Errant has been losing a lot of contract bids to LS recently, given LS’s confident and aggressive policing and takeover of the spaceport (and chunks of the undercity). Ares wants this to change. So, PHH proposes that Tobias get the crew together, find a way into an upper city Ares detention center, steal some data about current and pending contracts, upload a virus, trash the place, and not get caught. Tobias is intrigued, and manages to gain a KE contract manager’s contact info for more info about the job, in exchange for a substantial discount on the price of the job. PHH tells T to keep the HERF gun for now.

Tobias sets up a meet with Ivan and HCB, HCB invites K to watch (and smell) through his comm. Rolf hears about the job independently from Sylvain, and of course agrees. Anything for Ares! They meet in the sewer at a point of Ivan’s choosing. Tobias, aware of the new security situation, travels there unarmed, wearing his latest undercity gang fashions. He brings a copy of his pro-Edit program and a fancy bottle of whiskey as a “sorry” gift for Ivan. Ivan accepts the program, but refuses the alcohol, staying on the wagon (for now). HCB, seeing Ivan refuse the drink, pours his shot back into the bottle. Tobias, hating for a good drink to go to waste, downs the two remaining shots, and then gets down to business.

He tells the team about the job from KE, and also tells them that he and UB! have been talking about trying to set themselves up as leaders of a gang in ex-BS turf, either under the Problem Children, or possibly on their own. Tobias floats the idea of taking out Wade (which Ivan might support), or turning him into the cops (which Ivan does not support). Tobias plans to weaken LS enough that KE can pick up some undercity contracts, and then he can manipulate KE through his contact(s) to persecute other gangs while consolidating their own turf.

After some discussion (and after they bring K and Rolf in), they decide to do the KE run for now, and talk about the gang situation after, when they have some money and time to focus on it. They decide to do some preliminary research, and scout it out, with the aim of completing the run within the next 5 days (the timeline PHH provided), hopefully with UB!’s assistance.

To begin gaining some of the popularity they’ll need to pull off making their own gang, they collaborate on a video (edited by Tobias) of them killing Halfman at Longpig’s mansion. HCB performs the music (solo this time, as Chalt and Jerl are still in LS detention). Tobias sets the colors of the team members to match the old colors from April’s run trid’s, so anyone in the know knows who it is. Ivan and HCB hope to build some street cred, and let folks know they are still out there: kind of test the waters for a possible gang of their own, as it were. HCB hires Remus to upload it discretely (for a hefty fee), and it spreads over the matrix, casuing quite a stir. Only time will tell if it has the effect desired!