Runners:
Nomusa Iblis
Lodestone
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi
Atlas Park
The team takes a commercial flight to Nairobi Int’l Aerospaceport after getting their licenses and gear in order. There, they are introduced to a powerful free spirit who hires them to sabotage an AresSpace train that hauls cargo between NIA and the mass driver at Mt. Kilimanjaro, crashing it into the depot at high speed. The team accepts the initial offer on price before even hearing the job details, as it’s a surprisingly high number. They are to leave behind an enchanted Masai tribal mask to claim responsibility for the attack.
They spend a few days on recon, and end up with a solid plan. After bribing some customs and NIA employees, they ship Atlas and Nomusa in shoddy crates, on a train trip that is supposed to have low (relatively) security (i.e. no extra guards, etc.). The hire Innocent Dobiri, their friend from Lagos, to get them out of the country post-job. They also hire 4 friends of his to fly their planes nearby as they make their escape, headed in different directions, to distract pursuers. LS, Zuberi, Rooster, and TY will be in the plane to provide magical/fire support as needed.
Nomusa, having studied up on explosives, has rigged 2 small charges to blow open the conductors compartments on the train and destroy the onboard AI systems. TY also purchases some powerful area jammers to prevent wireless signals from reaching the train. Nomusa has also rigged up a carbomb, which TY sets off at a security gate on the farside of the mass driver facility to distract onsite security personnel. Atlas and Nomusa bust out of their crates, and bust out of their shipping container. They make their way up the narrow corridor at the center of the train, avoiding the drones on the topside. Nomusa rigs up the explosives on both ends, and sets them off, triggering the jammers at the same time.
He and Atlas make short work of the conductors, and after ensuring that the brakes have not engaged, climb to the roof to make their escape, leaving behind the ceremonial Masai mask that the spirit gave them. Although they are both heavily injured by drone fire, they manage to both jump off the train, deploying their basejump parachutes, and using their recently acquired squirrel suits to glide away. They make a rough but reasonably accurate landing, launch a skyhook, and are promptly picked up by Innocent. TY hacks everyone’s datatrail, and they flee, flying low westwards while the 4 dummy planes scatter in other directions.
They seem to have made good their escape, although Atlas and Nomusa are both unconscious and injured from stimpatch use. However, a lion shaman appears before them as a ghostly image, and tells them that they have framed his people for this attack. The team, reluctant to take responsibility, don’t wish to cooperate, although they tell the shaman that they will help his cause in the future in exchange for not destroying their plane, which he claims he has the ability to do. However, most of the team members have no actual intention to follow through on this, though the shaman made it clear that he and his followers would attempt to seek retribution if the team went back on their word. Regardless, for now they got paid and got clear, so it’s a win!
However, once returned to Nyamkopon, Rooster receives a disturbing message: Exocet, who has been missing for some days, has reappeared and says she needs to meet up and tell him something. TY goes with for security, while Atlas and Nomusa enter hospital care and LS and Zuberi initiate LS into the new Order of the Dark Realm. They meet her in a coffee shop, and can immediately tell that something’s a bit off. She looks somewhat injured and says that she was recently hit by a car, and lost some memory. She seems about to say more, but TY get suspicious and tries to back away, seemingly triggering an explosive device that had been implanted in her. TY is heavily injured, and Rooster nearly killed, by the blast. The coffee shop is largely destroyed.
Fearing what they may find waiting at the public hospital, Nomusa calls in a favor from The Butcher to get his friends private care. They heal up in a secure clinic, while Nomusa and TY purchase some hacking gear and everyone who had an Exocet SIN gets new SIN’s. TY and N research the accident, which looks like an intentional hit- apparently someone wanted her in a hospital. However, the public facilities claim to have no record of her. So they assume she also wound up in a black clinic. They are worried what info whoever had her may have extracted from her.
Atlas, distressingly, receives a “Get Well” bouquet with a card saying “we found you” in kanji attached. Worried, he leaves the hospital through a side exit, but doesn’t see any obvious Yak presence. However, he can’t contact Jason Park, and upon returning to the hotel finds a message scrawled in blood that says “well be in touch.” LS investigates the scene, and realizes it’s pig’s blood, not Jason’s. Also, all of their stuff has been gone through and then carefully repacked. There seems to be no trace of the intruders or a struggle.
The Yak do get in touch, and tell Atlas that if he wants to end their hunt for him (and see his brother safely returned) he will have to renounce his various martial arts titles, pay an appropriate physical price, and do a large act of penance. He agrees, reluctantly, as he can’t abandon Jason. They tell him to let them know when he is ready, and not to wait too long.
The team also gets a call from Jane, saying she has more work for them if they can meet her in Seattle. She provides airfare, so they agree, as Nyamkopon doesn’t seem very safe right now. Atlas gets in touch with Yak to arrange to settle his business in Seattle.
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