January 7th, 2041
The team leaves the Midway Freehold to return to Night City.
January 8th – January 16th, 2041
The team goes about the more mundane aspects of their lives.
January 17th, 2041
A bomb detonates at a Paris CINO shareholder meeting. The incident is blamed on the anti-corporate Red Flag Army.
January 18th, 2041
Militech commandos along with the LAPD make several raids to capture the saboteurs who have been attacking OTEC submarines. The attack is swift and brutal and caught on Network 54 film. It’s a PR disaster for OTEC and Militech.
January 19th, 2041
Militech announces that they have proof that Arasaka was involved in the sinking of the OTEC subs over the last few weeks. Arasaka accuses of Militech of fabricating the evidence and warns of retaliation.
January 20th – January 31st, 2041
Incidents between OTEC and CINO begin to escalate into serious conflict. The news is filled with incidents every day.
February 1st, 2041
Eurobank puts a freeze on all IHAG stock trading in the hope of putting an end to the violence.
February 2nd – February 5th, 2041
Freezing of IHAG stock does little to quell the violence.
February 6th, 2041
After a botched raid by CINO troops attempting to capture IHAG facilities, Arasaka takes direct control of all of CINO’s security forces.
February 7th, 2041
Riptide gets a call from his Militech contact, Colin Fisk. He has another job offer for the team. This time the destination is Panama City, Panama. They agree to meet that evening at the Golden Saloon.
At the meeting, Collin explains that CINO has a cargo sub facility located at Panama City. The job is to plant bombs on the subs and sink them. With Arasaka taking over security of all facilities, Militech cannot be involved in the operation. Collin can help get them whatever gear they want.
He shows them a lay out of the sub pen. It is surrounded on three sides by a 20’ high wall. The sea side is open but has a sonar net to detect anything coming in from that direction. There is a hill on each side of the pen. Each hill has a radar and SAM facility. One of them also has an assault AV parked on it. The facility itself houses several teams of Arasaka security and there is a patrol boat constantly roaming the waters outside the pen.
The team puts together their shopping list, including pair of sonar baffling SCUBA suits, and formulate a plan. Collin gives them the name of a contact in Panama City where they can pick up the items they requested in two days.
February 8th, 2041
The team flies out to Panama City. After acquiring their lodging they look into the renting one of the numerous barges floating out in the bay. They are able to secure one that is a couple of miles from the sub pen. The plan is to have Mouse, who is still back in Night City, hack the sub pen’s data net and disable the sonar net. The team will water taxi to the barge, where Zen and Helios will swim into the pen and plant the explosives. Saito will provide over watch with his sniper rifle from the barge.
February 9th, 2041
The team spends the morning relaxing and finalizing plans. At 1:00 pm, they head to the address that Collin gave them. It’s an upper level apartment in one of the poorer areas of town. Once there, they head up the stairs to the apartment door. They find the door unlocked and head in. They find their contact dead on the floor. They find their gear sorted through, but nothing seems to be missing.
They spot a camera and audio system on a desk. Saito quickly destroys it. The phone in the apartment then rings. The voice on the other end says he is not their enemy and wishes to meet. They agree to meet at an outdoor café down the road.
They meet at the café. Helios immediately recognizes the man as Winston Lee, the mercenary who had set up the kidnaping of the OTEC shareholders on Antigua.
Winston tells them about how he went to collect his payment from the man who was the go between for his unknown employer. The man was a merc name of Adam Smasher. This revelation causes the team to give each other looks while Helios grits his teeth. Winston says that instead of paying him, Adam tried to kill him. Winston, who has an unhealthy love for explosives, blew up his own home, with Adam in it. They asked if Adam Smasher is dead. Winston indicates that there were pieces of the merc on his front lawn when he left.
Winston says it’s bad for one’s reputation to allow an employer to get away with a double cross. He is now determined to find out who was behind the Antigua job. He tracked Adam Smasher’s activities and determined that whoever was funding him was operating out of this sub pen facility. Winston has been here the last few weeks working on a plan to get in. He also put out eyes and ears about anything coming into or out of the city.
When her learned about the suits of sonar baffling SCUBA gear being brought in, he became curious about who it was. When he raided the apartment, he saw the explosives and put two and two together. His concern is that their planned little escapade will interfere with his plan to get into the office located in the facility.
He proposes that they work together. His plan is to parachute onto the roof of the building. He’s planning a HALO jump to avoid the radar. From there, he will enter the building, get into an office with a terminal, and plug in a device given to him by a net runner he is working with. The device will give the net runner easy access to the data net and allow him to download all pertinent information regarding Adam Smasher.
Winston asks that they not hit the subs until after he exits the building. In exchange, the team’s net runner can share Winston’s back door access into the data net for disabling the security systems. The team agrees to the plan.
Much later that day, the team takes a water taxi out to the barge they rented. Helios and Zen get suited up and slip into the water.
February 10th, 2041
Saito observes the facility through the scope of his sniper rifle, while Riptide relies on the image magnification of his cyber eyes. Shortly after midnight, Saito observes Winston plunging through air right on schedule. Winston’s parachute deploys but then a moment later there is a tiny flash from one of the hills. Winston’s body jerks and then goes limp. His lifeless body hits the roof of the building. Lights turn on all over the sub pen and groups of security guards begin to move about.
The team immediately decides to revert back to the original plan. Mouse hacks the data net to spoof the sonar net. Helios and Zen swim into the pen, hoping that Mouse was successful. As they move under the docks, one of the security squads seems to spot them. As the two move from sub to sub planting explosives, the patrol boat comes around and enters the sub pen. The boat crew begins throwing depths charges over the side. Saito keeps them apprised of the positioning of the boat.
Just as the two plant the final explosive, an Arasaka dive team emerges from the barracks and enters the water. To make things even worse, the AV rises above one the hills, and moves toward the facility. The AV likely has the sensor capability to pinpoint the location of the Zen and Helios.
Saito did not want to give away his and Riptide’s position, but he had no choice. He takes aim with the massive thermo-electric sniper rifle and fires at the AV. The shot punctures the AV’s armor and sends it briefly spinning. It quickly regained its stability and starts moving in Saito’s direction. Saito waits until the AV is clear of the sub pen before hitting the AV again. This time, it drops into the water below.
Lights begin to turn on along the shore line as local police patrol boats begin to cast off their mooring. Riptide calls for their water taxi pickup.
Underwater, Helios and Zen begin to make their exit from the sub pen, but they are being followed by the Arasaka dive team, who are clearly faster in the water than they are.
This time a helicopter appears and begins to search for the two swimmers. The Arasaka dive team suddenly breaks off their pursuit. The helicopter begins dropping depth charges into the water. Saito watches the police patrol boats moving about the bay. If he fires now, they will be all over him and Riptide. But then he gets an idea. He places a call to Mouse. Mouse is less than excited about going back into a data net that he just left and is now likely on high alert, but he agrees.
The chopper drops another depth charge that gets dangerously close to Zen and Helios. They are already having trouble staying oriented as they get pummeled by repeated shock waves. The chopper moves directly above their position and gets ready to drop a depth charge right on top of of their heads.
Suddenly, there is a flash of light as one of the SAM systems sends a missile rocketing into the sky and heads straight for the chopper. The chopper veers off in an attempt to evade, but the missile finds its target and the chopper is lost in a ball of fire.
Saito and Riptide detonate the bombs, causing massive explosions around the sub pen. They then dump any incriminating gear into the water, just as the water taxi arrives to pick them up. Once on shore, they take a rented car out to the shore, south of Panama City. After a tense wait, Zen and Helios emerge from the water. Saito tells them they are going to owe Mouse when they get back.
In the late afternoon of that same day, the team boards a plane and returns to Night City.
That evening, the event is all over the news. The corporate war was about to go from bad to worse.
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