The couple sit in their lab and watch the Network 54 news feed. The anchor is speaking to Bryce, the media reporter who had just had his expose hit big ratings. It was the story of a group of people who had been framed for a both the murder of Arasaka Executive Burton Chambers and supposedly running a drug ring through their salvage company in Night City. Bryce explains how these people not only found the evidence to exonerate themselves, but they also exposed the fact that Chambers orchestrated the whole corporate war between IHAG and CINO. He knew it would lead to a conflict between Militech and Arasaka. He did all of this to force Arasaka to unleash the Soul Killer virus. Whoever had hacked Arasaka’s network, not only found the evidence of what Chambers was up to, but also proof that the Soul Killer virus had not been destroyed, contrary to Arasaka’s claims for years.

Bryce’s expose only speculated as to whether the hack of Arasaka’s network had anything to do with the catastrophic accident at the Arasaka Tower. There was an explosion in the nuclear reactor that did extensive damage to the building, requiring it to be completely torn down. There was much concern about radiation damage. Downtown Night City was shut down for several days until the reactor pile could be encased in concrete. Reports of actual radiation exposure was minimal.

In the sixth months since that incident, the people featured in the expose were able reopen the business they owned including Jimmy Two-Teeth’s, the Golden Saloon, and the Platinum Saloon. Jimmy Two Teeth’s got its city contract back. They also have a big law suit pending against Arasaka that they will surely win. Whether they actually collect is another matter.

Arasaka has not fared so well. The Night City tower was the center of their North American operations. Losing it has been a major blow to them. Furthermore, the revelation that the Soul Killer virus still existed has both SOCAL and the US government considering major sanctions against the corporation, including possibly banning them from operating on US soil.

When the interview comes to an end, the woman turns the TV off. She turns to her cyborg lover and asks, “Do we need to do something about them?”

“No,” he answers. “Let them be. They have played their part. All that matters is the Burton Chambers is no longer a threat.”

“So now what?” she asks.

Tobias Luna looks at Dr. Monroe and then turns to look at the frozen form of Jace Grant. He smiles and says “Now we begin.”

August 19th, 2041

Helios and Kahale stake out the Arasaka tower. They notice on a couple of occasions that a Microtech truck goes back and forth between the Microtech Building and the Arasaka Tower.

They contact Flatspin and ask her to pull as much data as she can on Korimichi, the head of IT for the Arasaka Night City office.

Riptide talks to Kaitlyn Jones about needing IDs for both the Arasaka community in Pacifica and the Night City Tower. She recommends a fixer named Grateful.

August 20th 2041

Mouse hacks the Microtech Mainframe. A daunting task for most netrunners, but with all of the hardware he has access to thanks to his working relationship with Masslight, he is able to get in and get out without incident. He is able to find two Microtech employees who have pre-established clearance to get into the Arasaka Security Bunker below the parking garage in the tower. Their names are Phillip McNalley and Matthew Woodward.

Riptide goes and meets with Grateful. Grateful’s prices are steep, but he can get them security badges for both Pacifica and the Arasaka Tower. The problem is that the Arasaka Tower badges won’t actually work for the access control system in the tower because computer security is too tight and planting the credentials in their system is impossible.
Once the team is back together, they discuss what else they need to do. They end up deciding to bring Ripper on board, as they will need all the help they can get.

August 21st, 2041

Kahale and Helios do recon on the two Microtech employees. Phillip lives in one of the New Harbor Mallplex Towers and Matt lives in an apartment building in Westhill.

August 22nd, 2041

Flatspin has the info on Korimichi and his family. Korimichi takes an osprey from his estate to the tower every day. The two kids go to school at an Arasaka school in Pacifica. Korimichi’s wife Andrea, has a limo that takes her shopping and to her various charity functions.

August 23rd, 2041

The team irons out the last details of the plan, like the fact that they have not considered their exit strategy. Kahale and Helios get their truck painted to look like a Microtech truck.

August 24th, 2041

Grateful delivers the ID badges. Militech is able to provide the Arasaka uniforms they need.

August 25th, 2041

At 7:00PM, the phase 1 of the plan is launched. Helios makes his way to Westhill to the home of Matthew Woodward. Kahale heads to the New Harbor Mallplex to the home of Philip McNalley. The rest of the team suits up in their Arasaka uniforms and begin the drive out to Pacifica.

Kahale uses Krissy’s Mallplex access card to get into the tower. He hangs out in the hallway until Phil arrives. Just as Phil has unlocked his door, Kahale shoves him inside and subdues him. He uses a retinal scanner to get a copy of Phil’s eye. He then asks for Phil’s PIN number. Phil refuses, but one broken finger later, he spills the goods. Kahale tells him to get comfortable as they will be there a while.

Across town, Helios arrives at Matt’s apartment building. He pops the panel on the door intercom and easily triggers the door lock. He finds Matt’s apartment and knocks on the door. When Matt opens the door, Helios tries to push him in. Matt was an offensive lineman in college and holds his ground, preventing Helios from making any headway. Helios draws his pistol and shoves it into Matt’s mouth. He has no problem getting cooperation from Matt after that. In a few minutes he has Matt’s retinal scan and PIN number.

The rest of the team, which consists of Riptide, Zen, Saito, Mouse, Ripper, and Krissy, arrives at the Arasaka controlled neighborhood in Pacifica. They show their security badges to the gate guards. After a cursory check, the guards let them in.

They drive to the estate of Ikara Korimichi. Zen and Riptide speak to the guard on the other side of the gate. He is suspicious of their claim that they are there to provide additional security. He asks to see their IDs and says he intends to call them in. Knowing that the IDs will not be in Arasaka’s system, Zen hits the guard with her gang jazzler as she hands him her ID. The electrical jolt causes him to collapse to the ground. Saito climbs up on top of the van and uses it to reach the top of the wall. He then drops down the other side and opens the gate. They drag the unconscious body of the guard into his guard shack and most of the team heads up the driveway to the house. Ripper stays behind and mans the gate.

At the house, they get out of the van and head to the front door. Riptide knocks on the door. He hears the sound of a gun being charged and dives out of the way as a hail of bullets punch their way through the front door. Saito kicks in the front door as Krissy lobs a frag grenade into the front hallway followed by a flash bang grenade from Zen. Saito and Riptide move in and kill or subdue the bodyguards who had taken up position in the hallway.

They spread out and search the house. Saito finds Ikara Korimichi in an upstairs bedroom with his family. Saito tells him that they are there to rescue him and his family.

Downstairs, Zen finds the security room and sees that there was a camera at the front gate, which explains why the house guards were ready for them. She realizes however, that they have a much bigger problem. It seems that the house security called for an Arasaka strike team for support and a squad was on its way via AV and would be there in a couple of minutes.

Saito immediately drops all pretenses and tells Ikara that if he does not want anything to happen to his family he needs to do everything that he is told. The rest of the team quickly loads the dead and unconscious guards into their van and have Ripper and Krissy drive away with them.

Outside, the AV does a quick circle around the property before landing in the back yard. A squad of 10 men pour out and immediately move to the house. The team quickly surrenders and tells the strike team that they had arrived and chased off the attackers and that everything is under control. The strike leader says they cannot leave until the house has been cleared. Everyone’s IDs will have to be verified as well.

Things look like they are about to go from bad to worse when Ikara, with Saito’s subtle prompting, tells the strike team leader that he needs to immediately get to his office in the Arasaka Tower. The strike leader protests, but Ikara makes it clear that this is an order. The strike leader reluctantly obeys.

Everyone begins to load into the AV. Zen quickly radios Krissy and tells her that she and Ripper should return to the house and secure the family. She also tells her to relay to Helios and Kahale that Phase 2 of the plan, which was not supposed to start until tomorrow morning is an immediate go.

They take the 10 minute flight to the Arasaka Tower. The team tries to avoid eye contact with the strike team, which is not easy considering the cramped conditions. The team’s uniforms and weapons are authentic, but the IDs could fail. On top of this, no one will believe on close inspection that Mouse is a security guard, not to mention the fact that Zen is carrying a satchel full of thermite tubes.

After the world’s longest 10 minute flight, the AV lands on the roof of Tower A. There the team sees firsthand the SAM launchers and Phalanx guns that protect the building. The AV is lowered via elevator to the hanger beneath. There everyone unloads. Zen spots Adam Smasher talking to a young female flight technician. He is bragging to her about something he has that is very large, but being a full conversion cyborg, she’s not 100% sure what he is referring to.

They descend to the security level on the 126 floor. There again, Ikara uses his authority to let them pass the checkpoint after having only shown their IDs for visual inspection. They go to his office where they force him to add their credentials to the security system and issue an emergency work order for Microtech to deliver some computer equipment to the security bunker.

They then tell him to input their security badges into the system with full security clearance. He tells them that he does not have the power to grant security clearance, which is probably true, but they also know that with his access to the system, he could make it happen none the less. Reluctantly, he goes in and adds their clearance. They then hang tight for about 10 minutes before going to the next phase. Zen stays behind to watch Ikara while Saito, Riptide and Mouse head down to the 85th floor.

Meanwhile, a Microtech painted truck rolls up the parking garage with Kahale and Helios in front, and a disassembled bomb that Mouse modified to look like server components stored in the back. Militech told them that the chemical components that would mix to detonate the bomb would not be detected by the bomb sniffing devices if kept separate. The truck parks between the bomb sensors as a guard checks their Microtech IDs. They have modified versions of Phil and Matt’s IDs with their own pictures on them.

The gate guard checks their IDs, and lets them through. They pull into the bottom floor of the parking garage and unload the disguised bomb parts. They each take their payload and enter the man trap that leads to the security bunker. They enter their PIN numbers and take the retinal scan. The upgraded cyberoptics they had installed do the trick, mimicking the retinal pattern of the Microtech employee that each is replacing. A guard issues them each a radiation tag and escorts them to the data core.

As they carry their gear to the data core they have two concerns. They used the stolen employee IDs to get past security, but the people working in the data core room will recognize that these two are not the employees they claim to be. They will need to switch tags to the ones with other names, but they need to do that without the security guard seeing.

The second problem is that based on the signage they see in the bunker regarding radiation exposure, they realize that the Arasaka Tower is powered by a self-contained, mini-pile nuclear reactor and its down here in the bunker with them and their bomb.
They arrive at the door to the data core. Helios uses his PIN to trigger the door. The guard seems satisfied and turns to walk way. The two immediately trade out their ID badges and enter the room.

The two men working in the room turn to see them and immediately ask who they are. They explain that this is an emergency call, which is why Matt and Phil aren’t doing the work as usual. The two technicians are highly suspicious. First, they had never seen a four-armed cyborg doing IT work. Second, why were they not informed about it? One of them looks in the system and sees that there is indeed a work order for an installation, and it came from Korimichi himself.

The two techs agree to allow the work to be done but insist that they directly oversee it. Helios wants to take them out, but there are cameras in the room. Instead, Kahale tells them that Koremichi instructed him to send them up to his office. They don’t believe this at all, so one of the tech’s calls up to Korimichi’s office.

Zen is sitting at Korimichi’s desk keeping an eye on the IT VP when the desk phone rings. She answers and the person on the other end identifies himself as Eric Lash from the security bunker, and asks if he and his partner ae supposed to come up and see Korimichi. Figuring this was a ploy by Helios and Kahale, she says that indeed Mr. Korimichi needs to see them both right away.

The tech hangs up the phone and tells Kahale and Helios that he and the other tech will be back shortly. As soon as they leave, the two began assembling the bomb. Aware of the camera in the room, they go about assembling the bomb as casually as possible.

Back in Korimichi’s office, the phone again rings. Zen picks up the phone and says she is Korimichi’s secretary. The voice on the other end is Burton Chambers. He demands to speak to Korimichi immediately. Zen does her best to stall him, but Chambers becomes angry very quickly. She just drops the phone and heads out the door to go down to the 85th floor.

On the 85th floor, Saito and Riptide stand guard over Mouse. Mouse suddenly stirs and announces that he has found the information regarding Chambers frame job on them, and has downloaded it to his cyberdeck. He will now begin downloading it to an offsite location. He needs to get this done quickly, because once Militech launches its distraction attack, Masslight will drop the communications wall around the tower.

Several minutes later, Zen enters the IT room where the other three are and updates them on the situation. They agree to have Zen stand guard over Mouse while the other two go deal with Chambers. Shortly after they leave, she gets a phone call from Krissy. She can barely hear Krissy over all of the heavy gun fire in the background. Krissy yells about something big coming through the roof of the house and then the phone goes dead. Zen tries to call back there is no answer.

Zen then notices that Mouse is sitting in an awkward position. She checks to see if he is ok, but he seems totally lifeless. She unplugs him from the net, which should be a shock to him, but still no response. She tries to get him to respond but nothing. Mouse had been worried about encountering the Soul Killer virus in Arasaka’s data net, since they knew it had been released. It appears that his biggest fear has come true. Mouse’s body is still alive, but his mind is gone, taken by the Soul Killer.

Zen takes out her pistol and puts it to Mouse’s head. It didn’t seem right killing their longtime friend, but she reminded herself that he is no longer there, and pulled the trigger. Unsure of whether or not he was able to send out the information, she takes his cyberdeck and places it in her satchel.

Just then, sirens begin to wail. Pre-recorded messages play over the intercom telling troops to assemble for deployment. The Militech attack has begun. This means the communication wall would be dropped in moments, leaving only the satellite antennas to be dealt with.

Zen heads up to the roof to deal with the antennas. It was supposed to be Mouse’s job to disable the antennas, but it now fell to her. What she lacks in technical knowledge, she makes up for in tubes of thermite.

Saito and Riptide arrive on the 125th floor and go to Koremichi’s office. There they find Koremichi still secured. They then wait for several minutes for Chambers to arrive, but now hearing the alarm going off to muster the troops, they figure that it’s time to go see him.
They walk across the floor to where Chamber’s apartment is located. The door is not locked. They open the door and see Burton Chambers pouring himself a drink. He invites them in and offers them a drink. They enter the apartment but turn down the drink. They ask him where Adam Smasher is. He says that Adam is currently offsite dealing with another matter.

Zen is on the roof applying thermite to the antenna. As AVs full of troops come up to the roof via the elevators and take off, everything is too chaotic to notice what she is doing. As the super-heated thermite begins to melt its way through the transmissions lines, she quickly heads downstairs to the hanger to deal with the backup antenna.

Doing her best to not draw attention to herself, she slowly makes her way over to the backup antenna. She begins prepping the last tubes of thermite when one of the elevators to the roof begins to descend. She hears Adam Smasher’s voice over a loud speaker say “People argue over what’s more bad-ass, a full conversion cyborg, or wearing power armor. I say, why not do both?” On the descending elevator is a modified suit of Arasaka power armor. It’s massive, standing a good 12 ft. tall. It has a grenade launcher mounted on one shoulder, and a heavy machine gun on the other. In its hands it clutches a rail gun. Smasher uses the railgun to blast the two remaining AVS. “Just want to make sure you don’t go anywhere,” he says. Zen looks to try and hide, but the big power armor suit turns to look right at her.

Helios and Kahale finish assembling the bomb. They switch ID tags again to Arasaka Security badges that grant them access to the building. They are out of range with the rest of the team so they don’t know how the rest of the plan is going or if their IDs have been entered into the security system and will actually work. They return to the parking garage and grab their security uniforms and weapons. They then take the elevator to the 20th floor where they pass through the first security check point. Their ID badges pass inspection and they take the next elevator up into tower A.

Helios questions what is going to happen when they detonate a bomb next to a nuclear reactor. Kahale says he saw a documentary once on these mini-pile reactors and says that it will be buried under so much concrete from the parking garage collapse that radiation exposure should be minimal. Helios then asks if the building still be standing after the reactor goes. Kahale just shrugs his shoulders. Not the answer Helios was hoping for as they ascend higher into the tower.

Burton Chamber’s apartment, Riptide and Saito have their weapons trained on Chambers. He seems none too worried. He sips his scotch and comments that it is the one drawback of being a cyborg, nothing quite tastes the same. He commends them on getting this far but he also reminds them of what he told them in the Night City Park. He is untouchable, and they are mere bugs under his foot. He tells them that he knows they got here via Korimichi and that Adam Smasher has eliminated the two team members that they left behind at Korimichi’s house. Nice try, but it’s over.

Saito agrees, thumbs the fire selector on his rifle to full-auto and empties the entire clip into Burton Chambers. The executive’s body lurches about from the bullet impacts and collapses to the floor. Saito inspects the body and sees that it is indeed a cyborg body; a very expensive one designed to look perfectly human. This is the second time he has killed Burton Chambers, but with the data core still operational, it will not be the last time they see him. Riptide points out that Chambers likely has an offsite back up system somewhere, so it is imperative that they don’t let him get outside the communications wall. Tower A has no method of escape any more, but Tower B is still operational.

In the hanger, Adam Smasher opens fire with the heavy machine gun at Zen. She tries to dive out of the way but is hit. The bad news is that she has some serious bleeding. The good news is that in his excitement to kill her, Adam Smasher destroyed the backup antenna that she was hiding behind.

The elevator carrying Helios and Kahale passes the 80th floor when their ear coms pick up the chatter from the rest of the team. The signal is full of static, but the message is clear. Blow the bomb and get to the roof of Tower B. Helios hits the button for the 90th floor and the two exit the elevator. Kahale pulls out the detonator and hopes that the two signal relays they dropped off on the way up do their job and carry the signal. He hits the button and after what seems like an eternity, the whole building shakes and seems to jump like a car going over a bump. All of the power goes out, but then emergency lights kick in and fire suppression systems go off.

The resulting chaos allows them to pass through the check point unchallenged. They run across the skywalk to Tower B. The elevators are not operational so they begin to take the stairwell the remaining 35 flights to the hanger.

Saito and Riptide reach the security level on the 125th floor. People are scrambling everywhere so no one stops them as they walk into the armory and find the two biggest electro-thermo anti-armor guns they can find. They then take the stairwell to the hanger.

Zen moves to increasing less effective cover as Adam Smasher continues to spray the area with machine gun fire. She is about to completely run out of cover when Riptide and Saito arrive from the stairwell. They fire their guns, hitting the PA suite and punching holes in the armor. Adam immediately turns is attention to them and begins pouring suppression fire into the stairwell. Both are hit, but their armor prevents the wounds from being fatal.

All around them echoes a loud sound like the rending of metal.

Zen runs up behind Adam Smasher and jumps onto the back of the PA suit. She holds on with one hand while opening one of the thermite tubes with the other. Adam Smasher drops his rail gun and reaches back and pulls Zen off his back with the crushing group of his hand. Zen is about to pass out from the pressure when she dumps the contents of the thermite tube onto the arm of the PA suit.

No longer suppressed, Saito and Riptide again appear in the doorway and open fire. Adam literally tosses Zen side and watches as the right arm of his PA suit melts off at the elbow. Now he is really mad and opens fire again with the machine gun on the stairwell door way.

This time Saito and Riptide are ready and duck back in time. But when the machine gun runs out of ammo, Adam switches to the grenade launcher and begins pumping frag grenades into the stairwell. Riptide and Saito are forced back to the security floor as a storm of shrapnel rips through the stairwell, shredding their armor and cutting into their flesh. They make it back to the security floor, but both are badly wounded.

Another loud sound is heard like the whole structure of the tower is groaning.

Zen regains consciousness and find herself laying on one of the AV elevator platforms. She rolls over to the controller and hits the ascend button. As Adam Smasher pumps grenades into the stairwell, the elevator takes her up to the roof.

She is laying on the roof of Tower A, applying some first aid to herself when she looks over at Tower B and sees an AV landing. Emerging from the hanger access is Burton Chambers, escorted by two security guards. She opens fire with her rifle but Burton Chambers merely laughs at her feeble attempt to stop him.

Suddenly, for everyone in Tower A, the whole world moves. There is a loud series of bangs and several of the crosswalks explode from metal fatigue and Tower A seems to shrink by several floors and then lean over and collapse into Tower B.

Zen is forced to grab hold of the elevator controller in order to avoid sliding across the roof and slamming into the side of Tower B.

In the hanger, Adam Smasher loses his footing, falls over and slides feet first across the hanger, one of his legs getting stuck in the stairwell door.

Helios and Kahale arrive at the Tower B Hanger. They just ran up 35 flights of stairs and pure adrenaline is the only thing keeping them from collapsing. They immediately begin to climb the access ladder to the roof.

They emerge on to the roof to see Burton Chambers getting into an AV. They immediately begin exchanging fire with the two security guards.

Saito and Riptide reenter the stairwell and see the leg of the PA suit sticking though the doorway. They cautiously approach and do not see any movement. The two push hard on the leg, making just enough room to squeeze past it. But when they are to get around the PA suit, they discover that the suit has been opened and Adam Smasher is no longer inside.

On the roof of Tower B, Burton Chambers climbs into the AV as his bodyguards trade fire with Helios and Kahale. They know that if that AV is able to fly outside of the communications wall, all of this will have been for nothing.

On the slanted roof of Tower A, Zen begins to consider how she can safely slide to the edge of the building and climb the 40 feet to get to the roof of Tower B. Several of the blast resistant windows have shattered, so she may be able to climb into the tower.

Just as she is preparing to slide down, a roof access hatch opens and out climbs Adam Smasher. He is no longer in his power armor, but he is still a full conversion cyborg and appears unscathed, whereas Zen is barely combat effective. He begins the climb towards her, yelling various horrible things he intends to do to her.

Over at Tower B, Helios kills one of the bodyguards as Kahale begins shooting at the AV. The AV appears to be up armored, and shrugs off the shots. It begins to lift into the air.

On Tower A, Adam Smasher reaches Zen and attacks with his mono-knife. Zen desperately tries to dodge the blows, but Adam is relentless. Suddenly he jolts as armor piercing slugs punch into his body. He turns to see Riptide standing by the access hatch with the big rifle he took from the armory. Adam slides down the roof looking to cannonball right into Riptide.

On Tower B, Helios takes down the other bodyguard as the AV begins to fly away. Kahale launches a full salvo of mini-missiles from his cyberarms. They strike the AV just as it clears the roof. At first the AV looks unaffected, but then there is a loud bang as smoke and fire begin to pour out of one of the vector thrust engines. Knowing that the AV was about to lose flight capability and that there is no surviving the 1,680 foot drop to the street, the pilot quickly turns the AV around and crashes it in the roof go Tower B.

On Tower A, Smasher slams into Riptide, sending his gun flying. Adam stabs Riptide with his mono knife. The ultra-sharp blade combined with Adam’s enhanced strength allow the knife to cut through Riptide’s armor and his skin weave and slice deep into flesh and bone. The wound is potentially fatal, but Riptide does his best to keep Smasher’s attention on him.

On Tower B, Helios and Kahale grab the access door on the AV and together, pull it off of its hinges. Kahale enters and is immediately attacked by Burton Chambers. The two cyborgs duke it out, but eventually the four-armed Kahale gets the upper hand and grapples Burton, holding him in place. Helios pops his wolver claws and decapitates Burton Chambers.

On Tower A, Adam Smasher is about to deliver the killing blow to Riptide when he feels the barrel of a gun pressed against his head. He turns to see Saito holding an anti-armor electro-thermo rifle against his head. He is about to make a smart ass comment when Saito pulls the trigger. Smasher’s skull explodes, sending pieces of metal and brain matter everywhere.

Saito helps Riptide staunch his bleeding. He looks up to see Helios standing on the edge of Tower B. He drops something off the edge and lands near Saito. Its Burton Chamber’s head. The brain case has cracked and brain matter is leaking out.

The team does a status check, each group learns that the other has survived and that Chambers and Smasher are dead. They can see that below them, multiple fires burn, and Tower A experiences another explosion and drops another few feet. It is likely only minutes away from total collapse. They then here the roar of vector thrust engines as several Arasaka AVs arrive. Their first reaction is to figure out how to fight or flee, but then they realize they are all wearing Arasaka uniforms and IDs.

Rescue teams rappel down ropes and begin doing triage on the team and the other wounded personnel. Eventually they are flown to Night City Park, where Arasaka has set up a rally point and emergency medical center. Over a hundred wounded people are being attended to.

Using the chaos and confusion of the scene, the team slowly and quietly disappears into the night.

It is finally over. Chambers and Smasher are dead, this time for good. They have the evidence to clear their names and get their lives back. But it cost the lives of three of their friends: Mouse, Ripper, and Krissy. Was it worth it? That will be for each of them to decide.

August 17th, 2041

The team borrows Dr. Monroe’s private jet to return to Lima, Peru. There they catch some rest and make some phone calls. The first is to Colin Fisk. Riptide explains that they want to raid the Arasaka Tower in Night City, trash the server and kill Burton Chambers. Colin, once he gets over the shock, asks to meet them in Las Vegas.

The next call is to Ray Stevenson, Riptide’s entertainer friend in Vegas. Ray hooks them up with a suite at the Network 54/MGM Grand.

The third call is to Mouse. He agrees to meet them in Las Vegas as well.

August 18th, 2041

The team charters a plane with their rapidly depleting funds, and fly to Las Vegas. During the flight, they begin to discuss what they need to. The Arasaka Night City Tower is said to be the second most secure building in the world, behind the Arasaka Tokyo Tower. The team decides that this is the time to pull out all the stops and call in every favor they can think of. Zen calls Krissy, who is game for whatever they want to do.

They arrive in the early evening, where they are met by Ray, who takes them to their hotel suite. In a short matter of time they are joined by Mouse and then Colin Fisk who has brought along Sphinx, Militech’s infiltration specialist.

The planning begins, and goes into the early morning hours. Sphinx gives them the layout of the building, explaining that it is officially 130 stories high. The bottom 20 floors are a single structure, but after that, the building separates into two towers. There are crosswalks ever 10 floors starting in the 30th and ending on the 100th floor.

Beneath the building is 12 levels of parking garage, a mechanical level, and finally a security bunker. Inside the bunker is the data core, the building’s power generation, and barracks for 40 troops plus 5 personnel.

The elevators on 1st floor go to the parking garage as well as up to the 20th floor. Level 20 is a security floor, in which people must go through a security checkpoint to transition to another set of elevators to continue up. Those elevators go up to the 90th floor which is another security floor. A check point must be crossed, and new elevators must be accessed to get to the top 40 floors of the building. The top four floors are really a single floor which acts as a hanger a maintenance area for the AVs, ospreys, and helicopters that operate from the roof of the building.

The building is home 1500 workers during the day and about 300 in the evenings, about half of which are security staff. The building also houses about 300 troops, over and above the ones in the security bunker. These troops are housed throughout the building.

Key cards are required to move from floor to floor. The check point on the 20th floor also requires entering a pin code. The check point on the 90th floor requires a retinal scan.
The roof of the building contains anti-aircraft systems and phalanx guns. On the ground level, tanks and power armor have been positioned due to the corporate war.

The team lays out exactly what they want to accomplish. They need to isolate Chambers and Adam Smasher, both physically and communication wise, and eliminate them. They would also like to retrieve any data that they can use to exonerate themselves.

Mouse confirms that Masslight can isolate the tower’s phone and data connections to prevent escape that way. Sphinx points out that there is a transmission tower on the roof of Tower A and a backup in the hanger below. These will need to be destroyed as they have direct satellite links which Masslight cannot block.

Riptide considers an alternate approach. He gets in touch with Tova, aboard the Crystal Palace and asks if she can orchestrate the destruction of Arasaka’s communication satellite. She says that Arasaka has multiple satellites, destroying one would just bring another into position, not to mention cause a shit storm that would have major implications in orbit. The best she can do is create some orbital interference that will put Arasaka’s primary satellite out of position. It would buy them maybe 20 minutes before it is put back in position.

Colin Fisk tells them that Militech is willing to launch an offensive in Night City that will hopefully force Arasaka to pull troops from the building. In exchange, they want the team to plant a bomb on the data core in the basement. It’s a chemical bomb that if brought in in two parts, should get past the bomb sniffers.

Burton Chambers’ home is on the 125th floor of tower B. The personal data backup used by the executives is located on the 85th floor of tower B. This is most likely where they will be able to find Chambers’ personal files that may contain the information they need to exonerate themselves.

The plan is debated for several hours. After many arguments and numerous iterations, the plan comes together.

The team knows that Arasaka will need to use outside vendors for certain things like computer hardware. They decide to find a vendor who has employees with pre-approved security clearance to get into the bunker. They then steal the identity of these employees and bring in the bomb in multiple parts disguised as computer hardware. They will need to acquire a retinal scanner that they can use to get the retinal images of the employees. Heliosand Kahale, who will carry out this part of the plan, with get their cyber optics modified with a feature that will allow them to copy these retinal images.

The others will infiltrate the secured neighborhood in Rancho Coronado, break into the estate of Ikara Koremichi, the IT director for Arasaka’s Night City office. They will first get him to issue the work order that will grant access for Helios and Kahale to the security bunker, and then the rest of team will disguise themselves as Arasaka Security and fly Koremichi back to the tower. There they will go to the 85th floor and have Mouse download the information they need to clear themselves and then head back to the top of the building to disable the transmission towers and kill Chambers and Smasher.

August 19th, 2041

The team loads up a truck they have acquired and begin the drive back to Night City. Zen has a safe house that has hopefully not been compromised that they can use as a base of operations. The plan has a lot of moving parts, any one of which could go wrong causing the whole thing to collapse. This is by far the biggest and craziest thing they have ever tried. Over the last five years, they have developed new skills, learned new tricks and gained new friends. They will need all of them now for this plan to work.

August 16th, 2041

With their first attempt to contact Tobias on the Prinn Institute Island having failed, the Militech jet the team is on is forced to divert to Lima, Peru to refuel.

With the jet refueled, it returns to the island and again they request permission to land. Again they are denied despite their multiple requests. The team again consider their options when the pilot calls out in confusion and surprise. The team looks out the front of the plane and sees a massive flock of birds. They only have a moment to consider the fact that they are flying too high for birds when the flock hits the jet. Both engines absorb birds and quickly flame out. Multiple birds slam into the front of the plane, shattering the cockpit window and hitting the pilot, killing him. As the pilot collapses, the plane banks and pitches forward. With no pilot and no engines, the team watches as the ocean looms before them and they rapidly plunge towards it.

While the rest of the team begins to look for emergency gear, Helios makes his way to the cockpit, pulls the dead pilot out of his seat and straps in. The wind blasting him in the face makes it almost impossible to see, but he is able to assess that the manual controls are shot. He jacks into the vehicle link and begins to get a feel for the controls. Helios has never actually flown a jet before, but since both engines are gone, it’s really more of a glider than a jet at this point.

In the back, the team finds parachutes and life jackets and began to strap them on. The jet is moving too fast to jump though. Helios fights with the controls and is able to maneuver the jet into a glide. He might be able to get the plane to slow enough for the others to jump, but he will need to stay at the controls.

As the plane slows, the other team members jump out and parachute into the ocean several miles from the island. They watch as the plane glides the remainder of the way to the island, hits the beach and slides a full mile inland to the edge of the jungle. Unsure of Helios’ fate, they ditch their parachutes, group together, and begin the long, slow swim to the island.

At the edge of the jungle, a door opens on the smoking wreckage of the jet and Helios tumbles out battered and bruised. After making sure that all limbs and major organs were still intact, he begins pulling out weapons and survival gear and prepared to camp until the others arrive.

The others are swimming towards the island when they spot two sharks closing in on them. At first they hope that the sharks might ignore them, but them one takes a bite at Zen. Her body armor protects her from the worst of it, but in the moment of the attack, she sees that the shark is cyber enhanced with sensors and what looks like advanced neuralware, the very sort of technology the Prinn Institute is known for. Both sharks circle and attack. Targeting the sharks swimming around them while floating in life vests proves to be very difficult. Finally, Kahale, the four armed cyborg, is able to grab hold of one of the sharks using one pair of arms while blasting it at point blank range with the pistols in his other arms. Saito is able to draw a bead on the other shark and takes it out with his assault rifle.

Back on the island, Helios is making camp, tending to his many cuts and bruises when he hears movement in the jungle. He sees nothing and is about to switch to thermo-optics when an enormous black figure leaps out of the jungle and hits him, sending him flying several feet. He hits the ground and recovers quickly, but notices that he has gained several more deep cuts. To make matters worse, his attacker appears to be a large cyber-enhanced gorilla complete with a pair of wolvers. He checks is surroundings and sees his Militech Mark V rifle laying by the plane fuselage. Knowing he cannot get to it, he pops his own wolvers and decides to take on the gorilla.

It does not go well. The gorilla is as fast as Helios and way stronger. Every blow feels like a sledge hammer, and every slash of the wolvers cuts through his armor and into his flesh. If it weren’t for Helios’ subdermal armor and muscle grafts, the gorilla would have broken every bone in his body. Knowing he can’t win, he decides to go out fighting and charges the gorilla, who easily picks him up and throws him.

Helios hits the ground and waits for the gorilla to come over and deliver the killing blow. But when he looks up, Helios realizes he has landed a few feet from his Mark V. The gorilla seems to recognize the threat and begins to charge. Helios musters the last of his strength to lunge forward and grab the rifle. He rolls to his left, brings up the rifle and opens fire. The electro-thermal rounds rip into the gorilla. The gorilla is stunned for only a moment, but it’s enough time for Helios to fire another four-round burst. The gorilla staggers and Helios fires again. Finally, the beast collapses. Helios simply lays back, staring up at the night sky, fairly confident that surviving a plane crash and a gorilla attack in the same day has to be some sort of first.

The rest of the team is closing in on the shore when they spot several more sharks closing in on them. Kahale uses the mini-missiles mounted in one of his cyber-arms to blast the sharks. The sharks are wounded but continue to close in. The team is better prepared and coordinate their attacks and are able to kill or drive off the sharks. Finally they make it to shore.

They followed the wreckage to the fuselage of the plane and find Helios passed out next the body of a large gorilla. The team takes some time to get themselves patched up and then head into the jungle.

They have been trekking through the jungle for several hours when they become of aware that they are being stalked. Thermo-optics reveals all kinds of life in the jungle, but a half dozen large cats stand out. The cyber-form panthers attack. They are extremely quick and are on the team in an instant. The cats move and pounce with lighting reflexes. Kahale lays down suppression fire with his heavy machine while the others take advantage and target the cats. Eventually the team is victorious, but they take more wounds with Riptide taking the worst of it.

August 17th, 2041

They continue on through the night, running on adrenaline. It isn’t long before they realize that they are being tracked by more cats. They are unsure they can survive another attack as banged up as they already are. They consult the satellite map they were given and decide to head up into the nearby hills. According to the map, there is a communications station on top of the one of the islands small mountains.

Around 3:00 AM they arrive at the transmission station. There is a com shack there that is unoccupied. They decide to hole up in it and get some much needed shut eye.
They maintain a watch rotation and notice that the longer they are there, the more birds there seem to be in the trees, watching them. As the dawn comes they are able to recognize the birds as the same kind they took down their jet.

Around 10:00 AM, they begin to head out. Saito notices that when Helios leaves the shack, the pattern of the bird calls changes. Listening closely he realizes that the chirps and clicks are a form of modified military code. Falling back on his training that he received a life time ago in the Mossad, he deciphers the code and realizes the birds are says “You killed my mommy.” Just like the birds, everyone begins looking at Helios.

Once everyone has wrapped their head around this new development, Saito tries communicating with the birds. At first, it does not seem to work, but when he indicates that Tobias Luna is in trouble and that they are there to help, one of the birds flies down and lands on Saito’s arm.

Certain now that he is somehow communicating with Tobias’ son, Mathew, Saito does his best to distract Mathew from the whole Helios having killed his mother thing and explains that they need to see Tobias because he is in great danger. Mathew communicates back via the chirps and clicks made by the bird, explaining that he does not know where his father is. He seems to have disappeared a few days ago. Saito asks where Mathew is, and Mathew responds that he is at the house. Zen and Riptide check the satellite map that Militech has given them and notice that near the central village on the island is a house standing alone on a hill. Saito tells Mathew that they will come to the house and help him find his dad.

They spend the next several hours trekking to the house on the hill. This time they are left alone by the local cyber-enhanced wild life.

As they approach the hill, they see a combat cyborg patrolling the grounds along with several cyber-form guard dogs. As they approach the house, the guard dogs close in, but then back off. This seems to be a cue for the combat cyborg to leave them alone as well, although it tracks them with its autocannon the whole way.

They arrive at the front door and knock. They are greeted by a full conversion cyborg butler who welcomes them in. He explains that this house belongs to the island’s director, Dr. Evelyn Monroe. She is currently touring the island, overseeing the various research projects taking place.

They ask him about Mathew, and he says that Mathew is upstairs and is not to be disturbed. They are taken aback when they ask him about Tobias Luna and the butler explains matter-of-factly that he is dead, as Dr. Monroe has killed him. The butler then offers them dinner.

The team sits at the dining room table having a rather nice meal. Saito scans the house with his thermos-optics and finds the boy on the top floor of the house. He asks to use the bathroom which is on the second floor. The butler escorts him there. While in the bathroom, he tries to communicate with Mathew, but gets no response.

After Saito returns, the team is finishing up their meal when they hear a helicopter approach. It lands on the lawn outside and a middle-aged woman steps out. She comes to the house and lets herself in. She introduces herself as Dr. Monroe and says she is a bit disappointed that they are still alive. Nothing personal, she explains, but the fact that they survived multiple attacks by the cyberforms, even when the cyberforms were being guided by Mathew via the videogame interface he is using, means the project still has a long ways to go. But since they have survived, she says she might as well show them what they came to see.

She motions for them to follow her and they do. They climb into her helicopter and are taken to one of the research facilities on the south side of the island. From the exterior, the facility looks old and ramshackle, with numerous guards and combat cyborgs moving about. But once inside, they take an elevator to the subbasement level, which reveals a state-of-the-art cybernetics research facility.

They pass through several labs including one that contains Jace Grant, in cryo-freeze. They are about to ask why he is here when she waves them on to one final room. It’s a very spartan bedroom, although as pristine as the labs. A young thin blonde man is his 20’s is watching several monitors, but turns to greet them as they enter.

He commends the on finding their way here. Both Saito and Zen immediately ask if they are speaking to Tobias Luna. He confirms that he is. He fled to the island, both to be with Dr. Monroe, who he has been seeing for some time, but also to escape Burton Chambers.

He had been working with Chambers on a project that would allow someone to transfer their consciousness from one body to another. They had tried digital transference, both via the device that found its way into Torrent’s head as well as direct downloading, which is what Masslight had been created to assist with. They also tried cloning a person with a mind designed for transference, as with the clone named Adam.

They reached a major breakthrough nearly two years ago, when they realized they need not clone an entire person. Instead, they could clone an individual’s brain, mount it into a cyborg body, and have the person transfer their consciousness into that brain. They came extremely close to success, but ultimately could not successfully transfer consciousness.

Luna was frankly glad they failed. While fascinated by the project initially, he began to have doubts about effectively granting someone immortality by letting them jump from body to body, creating a mind that could exist both in physical world and on the net. When it became clear to him that Burton Chambers saw it as a form of apotheosis, he began to have his doubts. Chambers also talked about eliminating all of those who might be able to duplicate their work, such as Dr. Kilacho. It became clear that Chambers wanted this for himself only.

Burton Chambers believed that the creators of the legendary Soul Killer virus had figured out the secret to transferring consciousness. But they were all dead, and the virus was locked away, only to be used in an emergency. Luna believed the project dead at that point.

But then the new corporate war was started. At first Luna did not make the connection, but eventually figured out the Chambers had engineered the one scenario where Arasaka would bring the virus out of the vault, a war with Militech.

As soon as it was out, he made a copy and went to work. Things began to change rapidly. Chambers soon saw Luna as a rival, not an ally. He already blamed Luna for losing both Masslight and Adam. When he demanded Luna find out what the team was smuggling into Night City, another task at which Luna failed, Chambers sent Adam Smasher to kill him. Luna was able to disappear with his son before that happened. When he heard that Adam Smasher was killed by a direct head shot at the Cult of the New Dawn compound only to reappear a few weeks later in Night City, Luna new Chambers had succeeded, and likely used Smasher as a test to make sure it would work before trying it on himself.

With Chambers immortal, and having the keys to the resources at Arasaka, he would settle for now less than world domination. Chambers was the kind of man where anything less than everything was not enough.

Luna decided to wait out the end of the world here on the island. Unfortunately, Chambers has his spies at the Prinn Institute and he soon learned that Luna was there. He ordered Dr. Monroe to have Luna killed which she did, only to secretly have his brain transferred into this cyborg body. Luna tells them he has not yet figured out how to explain this all to his son.

He looks at Helios, the man who killed his wife and says, “That reminds me, I wonder if this still works.” He reaches into a drawer and pulls out a watch. He taps a couple of buttons on the watch and looks at Helios. After nothing happens for several seconds, he shrugs and puts the watch back in the drawer. When the team asks what that was about, he explains that shortly after Helios killed his wife, Luna had a nano-bot virus injected into Helios. He wondered if it was still there, but since Helios did not just fall over dead, they must have discovered the virus at some point and removed it. Between the seemingly indifferent attitude that Luna has regarding his murdered wife and the way he just casually tried to kill out Helios out of curiosity, the team wonders if he is any saner that Burton Chambers.

They ask him how to stop Chambers. He explains that there is likely a central server that functions as the hub for Chambers’ and Smasher’s consciousness. If the team can somehow cut them off from the net, and destroy that server, they will likely kill Chambers and Smasher once and for all. When asked where the server would be, Luna explains that he is certain that it is in the Arasaka Tower in Night City.

So all the team has to do is shut down the Net, storm one of the most fortified buildings on the planet and destroy a server that could be on any one of its 130 floors. Clearly it’s an insane idea. But then Luna points out that if they are able to save Chamber’s memories, they will likely have all the evidence they need to clear their names and get their lives back.

The plan is still insane, but suddenly it doesn’t seem like the worst idea in the world.

August 1st, 2041

Zen, Riptide, and Helios stand in the Night City Park, staring and the bloody heap that was Burton Chambers. Adam Smasher’s words still ringing in their ears, “You guys are so predictable.” They had been had and they knew it, they just didn’t know how. Now they can hear the sirens, lots of them. Kahale emerges from the lake and Saito comes down from the roof of the Hotel Hamilton and the team scatters.

They came back together at Fast Eddie’s Pool Hall, down in the O-Zoners territory. They watch the Network 54 news which headlines a story about the murder of Arasaka executive Burton Chambers in Night City Park. Not only does it feature video of the incident clearly shot from the AV, but at the end they post images of Saito, Riptide, Helios, and Zen, including their real names. It is clear some of the patrons in the bar recognize them, but no one wants to be hassled by the cops, so no one makes a call.

August 2nd, 2041

The team doesn’t have a home, but Fast Eddyies doesn’t take boarders, so they are back on the streets. They drive deep into the Combat Zone and find an abandoned warehouse they can hole up in. There they take turns on watch and try and catch some sleep.

In the morning, Riptide gets a call from their lawyer, David Wilson. He tells them that their bond has been revoked and they have 24 hours to turn themselves in. They only have 12 hours to check in with Barbwire Bonds before she starts putting bounty hunters on their trail. He strongly advises that they turn themselves in. Soon they will have the NCPD, Arasaka, and bounty hunters all looking for them, and it’s only a matter of time before someone finds them, and if it’s Arasaka that finds them first, they are good as dead.

They stay for the remainder of the morning, although Zen becomes increasingly restless. She is convinced that Riptide taking that call from their lawyer has given away their position. The others are skeptical until an AV is heard patrolling overhead.

Deciding it’s time to move on, they head out in different directions. Helios heads south and quickly finds an Arasaka checkpoint. He ditches his vehicle and heads into the sewer.
Saito and Zen head east in separate vehicles. They come upon two Arasaka APCs and several troopers milling about. Saito attempts to drive through all casual like, but one of the troopers recognizes him. He takes off as one of the APCs follows in pursuit.

Zen tries to drive through next but she is ordered to stop. Knowing that the jig is up, she guns her motorcycle and tries to escape. A storm of bullets comes her way, but her layered armor protects her. Her motorcycle is not so lucky and quickly dies. She dodges more gun fire but finally ducks into an apartment building.

Riptide and Kahale drive north in what was once the Golden Saloon Party Van, but was now just a non-descript van. They suddenly find themselves coming face to face with a walker tank, and an Arasaka check point behind it. Kahale casually pulls the van to the side of the road and gets out. He walks toward the checkpoint, doing his best to look unfazed as the autocannon on the tank tracks his movement for several steps.

He eventually reaches the check point and asks what is going on. He is shown pictures of the other team members and is asked if he has seen any of them. He says no and tells them he needs to do some repairs on the van and asks not to be shot at. The Arasaka troopers can’t give him any guarantees, but they appreciate the heads up.

Saito is able to lose the much slower APC, but he can hear the AV nearby. He does his best to evade the patrolling AV and soon finds himself out of the neighborhood.

Zen is holed up in the apartment building when troopers begin door to door searches. She goes to the back door where some troopers are passing through. The troopers on the street kicking in doors seem to be moving quickly while the ones in the alley seem to be taking their sweet time. Finally, the ally troopers move around the corner and Zen is able to step outside just as the other trooper enter the front door of the building and begin searching. Zen finds a sewer cover and goes sewer surfing as well.

Kahale pretends to work on the van while Riptide sneaks out. Once he is clear, Kahale gets in the van and drives to the check point. The Arasaka troops check over the van and let him pass. Riptide exits out the other side of the alley, narrowly avoids a couple of patrols and meets back up with Kahale a few blocks away.

Zen catches a cab and goes to Chinatown where she has an apartment she uses as an emergency safe house. Helios sits at a south side bar, stinking up the place with his wonderful sewer stench. The others meet up at the Night City Gun Range outside of the city.

Being the only one not currently wanted, Kahale decides to book a coffin at the EZ Overnighter, and spends his time at The Afterlife where he is employed.

Riptide works his contacts and learns an interesting bit of information. Network 54 investigative journalist Bryce, just Bryce, is interested in their story. He would be willing to give the team a safe place to stay in exchange for their story. Riptide is the only one who takes him up on the offer.

Helios eventually finds his way to the gun range as well. Both he and Saito decide to camp out in the woods, although not together for some reason.

August 3rd, 2041

Riptide meets Bryce, a blonde kid who looks too young to be taken seriously and yet is in fact a Pulitzer winning journalist. Riptide begins telling him their story, although a somewhat sanitized and less incriminating version.

Kahale, no longer able to depend on the others for a ride decides to spend almost his entire life savings on a vehicle. Unfortunately, Kahale’s life savings only buys a used electric two seater, but he seems to take delight in driving a car barely big enough to fit his large bionic enhanced body.

In the news that evening, someone has shot up the Caf-Caf. Video shows the shooter gunning down several people in the Braindance section, including Flatspin’s meat puppet. Observant team members spot the real Flatspin packing up her things and sneaking out the back.

August 4th, 2041

Riptide continues to tell his story to Bryce while the others lay low.

August 5th, 2041

A reward of $25,000 each has been posted for the capture of Saito, Riptide, Helios, and Zen. While working at the Afterlife, Kahale gets wind that someone is looking for Zen. He finds it’s a young woman he does not recognize. He gets a message to her to return in two days is she wants to meet Zen. After work, he relays to Zen what happened. She does not recognize the person based on his description.

August 6th, 2041

The battle between Arasaka and Militech has moved to Hwy 828. This means it is only a matter of time before it spills into the southern areas of Night City. Where Helios and Saito have been camping, everything from stray gunshots to full on engagements can be heard going on nearby.

August 7th, 2041

Saito packs up his camp and heads into the war zone. He is able to avoid several Arasaka patrols and finds a unit of Militech troops. He tells them he is the guy who shot Burton Chambers and they take him to the Heywood Proving Grounds.

That evening, Kahale is back at the Afterlife and so is the woman. He gets a message to her asking what she wants. She responds that she knows where Tobias Luna is. He advises her to return again the next night. He relays this to Zen and Riptide who realize it must be Flatspin.

August 8th, 2041

Kahale makes direct contact with Flatspin and takes her to see Riptide. There he pays her fee and she reveals that the woman in the photograph she had shown them several weeks back was of Tobias Luna and Dr. Evelyn Monroe. Dr. Evelyn Monroe is the head research scientist for the Prinn Institute. It seems that she and Tobias have been having a clandestine relationship for some time. A chartered flight with unknown passengers left Night City the day Luna and his son disappeared and flew to Lima, Peru.
The Prinn Institute has a research island in the south pacific about 600 miles west of Peru. A shuttle plane frequently goes between Lima and the island. Flatspin can’t be certain, but she is confident that Tobias Luna is on that island.

August 9th, 2041

Riptide and Zen discuss Flatspin’s information. They would really like to talk to Tobias, but realize in their current situation, they have not the resources to get there. They share what they have learned with the rest of the team.

August 10th, 2041

Bryce tells Riptide he has another story to cover, but will be back in a week to finish his interview with Riptide.

August 11th, 2041

They learn in the news that an unknown merc unit has attacked the Forlorn Hope. However, the regulars at the bar are hardened war vets and it’s not the first time that have had to defend their establishment. The mercs were successfully repelled.

Saito talks to a colonel at the Militech base and asks if there is any way he can get a plane ride to South America.

August 12th, 2041

Riptide calls Colin Fisk about getting his help. Colin tells Riptide that he is flying into Heywood tomorrow to meet with Saito about transportation to the South Pacific. Riptide says he will be there as well.

August 13th, 2041
Saito, Riptide and Colin Fisk meet. Riptide explains that they need to get to the island and find Tobias Luna. He explains that Luna may now why Burton Chambers wanted this corporate war to happen. Fisk is skeptical that this will help the war effort in anyway, but he agrees to requisition a jet that can take them to the island.

August 14th, 2041

The team makes preparations, including getting some Militech combat hardware.

August 15th, 2041

The whole team reunites for the first time since escaping the Combat Zone. They gear up, and that evening board a jet bound for the South Pacific.

August 16th, 2041
In the morning hours, their jet is picked up by the Prinn Institutes Island’s radar and they are immediately told to change course. They tell the radio operator that they are there to speak to Tobias Luna. The operator tells them that there is no one on the island by that name. They then ask to speak to Dr. Evelyn Monroe but they are told that she is not available or taking visitors. They argue with the radio operator for several minutes before they give up. The pilot says they will need to fly to Lima soon to refuel. They tell him to go ahead.

In Lima, while the jet is refueling, the team discussed what to do next. They consider just going back to Night City. They ultimately decide to give it one more shot.

With the jet refueled, it returns to the island and again they request permission to land. Again they are denied despite their multiple requests. The team again consider their options when the pilot calls out in confusion and surprise. The team looks out the front of the plane and sees a massive flock of birds. They only have a moment to consider the fact that they are flying too high for birds when the flock hits the jet. Both engines absorb birds and quickly flame out. Multiple birds slam into the front of the plane, shattering the window and hitting the pilot, killing him.

As the pilot collapses, the plane banks and pitches forward. With no pilot and no engines, the team watches as the ocean looms before them and they rapidly plunge towards it.

June 21st, 2041

Riptide, Saito, and Helios return to Night City. Zen remains in the hospital in Athens along with Kahale, who stands guard, watching over her.

June 22nd – June 26th, 2041

The team considers how to build on what they have learned. Thanks to Alfredo Bruga, they now know that Burton Chambers engineered the latest corporate war, but they have no idea why. Burton won’t be promoted any higher than he already is at Arasaka. Neither Arasaka nor Militech will profit from this war as neither is likely to survive as its going.

The mercenary group Lazarus will be the biggest benefactor as it will go from being the third largest private army to the first once all the dust settles. The team does some financial digging, but can find no financial connection between Burton Chambers and Lazarus. Burton would do no better if he worked for Lazarus as all of their top execs are ex-military.

June 27th, 2041

In the news, a major battle between Arasaka and Militech breaks out in Los Angeles. Kaitlyn Jones tells Riptide that one of Infocomp’s Sysops had expressed concern to her regarding the security of their central data base. The next day, he was found dead with his mind wiped. Since Arasaka provides the security for Infocomp’s data fortress, rumors of the Soul Killer virus have begun.

June 27th – 30th, 2041

Further research reveals that Petrochem has been making massive profits off of the current corporate war as it has been selling fuel to both sides. The team looks into whether Burton Chambers is invested in Petrochem. It turns out that the only major investments he seems to have are in Biotechnica, Arasaka, DMS, and the Prinn Institute
.
July 1st, 2041

Battles break out in Paris and Mexico City

July 2nd – July 9th, 2041

The team sits tight, working their businesses while keeping an eye on the news.

July 10th, 2041

Zen and Kahale return to Night City.

July 11th – July 13th, 2041

All seems quiet and uneventful.

July 14th, 2041

The team hears from Flatspin. They had hired her to find The Luna Family. She has had weeks of dead ends but now finally has a lead. She managed to find an image of Tobias taken a few weeks before his disappearance, taken in Aspen, Colorado with a woman. She did not know who the woman was either, but Flatspin seemed confident that this was the key to finally making some progress.

July 15th, 2041

Riptide is spending time with Kaitlyn when she tells him that the home of the Infocomp Sysop that had died had been found ransacked, although it is not known if anything was taken. She was able to confirm that he was working on a concern regarding their Arasaka data security.

July 16th, 2041

Governments begin deploying military forces around key assets in order to protect them from becoming collateral damage in the corporate war. The two mega-corps are still too powerful for any government to try to directly intervene.

July 17th, 2041

An uneventful day.

July 18th, 2041

An unknown mercenary unit has attacked the old neighborhood that the team used to be based in. According to the news, the street gang Death in the Afternoon was wiped out.

The team visits the area and learns that the mercs were led by a full conversion cyborg wearing a Hard Rock Café t-shirt.

Riptide calls Lt. Bubba McCarty, the head of the Night City SPARS unit. McCarty says he is not involved in the investigation, but the description of the cyborg tells him that it’s Adam Smasher. Adam’s meat body was blown up in Antigua, and he has been presumed dead ever since, but rumors of him back as a ‘borg abound. Saito believes this is the same ‘borg he shot at the Cult of the New Dawn compound, which would mean Adam Smasher is likely the one who has been tracking down users of .50 cal electro-thermo ammunition.

Riptide asks if McCarty can take down Smasher. McCarty says he would need some pretty solid evidence. Smasher has the favor of Arasaka, and Arasaka funds the Night City Police Department. They don’t control the department, but they can make McCarty’s life very difficult.

July 20th – July 23rd, 2041

The team gets in contact with the gang at the Forlorn Hope and anyone else they have been acquainted with, and warns them that someone is sending a message to the team, and they are writing it in the blood of the team’s allies.

July 24th, 2041

In the news, Militech withdraws from Chicago, conceding what remains of the city to Arasaka.

July 25th, 2041

Zen and Helios are at work at Jimmy Two-Teeths when several squad cars roll up along with an NCPD APC. A couple dozen cops raid the place and place Helios and Zen under arrest. When asked what the charges are, they are told its drug trafficking.

Meanwhile, on the north side of town at the Platinum Saloon, police arrive at that site and place Saito and Riptide under arrest. Kahale is left untouched.

Kahale visits a nearby thrift shop and buys a briefcase. He then unloads all of his implanted weapons and goes to the Night City Justice Center. After passing through the extensive weapon scanning, he tells the Sgt. in charge that he is the team’s lawyer. The Sgt. doesn’t believe him for a second, but is too close to earning his pension to care. He takes Kahale to their holding cell and tells him that he has 15 minutes.

Kahale offers to break them out, but they quickly shoot down that idea. Instead they tell him to gather up whatever equipment of theirs that hasn’t been confiscated and to hire them a lawyer. They give him the number of the attorney who helped them set up the salvage business.

Disappointed that he wasn’t going to get is initiate a jail break, Kahale leaves and does as they asked. He goes to Jimmy Two Teeth’s and to their primary residence, but everything had been confiscated. All they would have to work with is what Kahale had plus what Saito has stashed at Baja’s
.
He next calls the lawyer, who based on the budget Kahale gives him, recommends an attorney named Dave Wilson.

July 26th, 2041

It’s all over the news and the scream sheets: Jimmy-Two Teeth’s, who holds the contract for salvage in all of downtown Night City has been shut down due to charges of drug trafficking. Investigators have also shut down the Golden Saloon and the Platinum Saloon as these establishments have the same owners.

Attorney David Wilson visits the team in jail. He tells them that police responded to an anonymous tip indicating that they were using their salvage business to move Blue Ice. Police raided the shop and found several cars had packages of Blue Ice hidden throughout them. Enough Blue Ice, in fact, to put them in prison for decades.

Wilson says they have a hearing tomorrow in which he will try to get them released, but the bond is going to be very expensive, like a $50 Grand each expensive. But he does know a good bail bondsman who will put up the bonds for 5% up front. Resources are limited, but they can’t clear their name from inside prison. Riptide, Zen, and Saito agree. Helios, on the other hand, decides it’s safer to stay in jail.

That evening, there are news reports at the Golden Saloon has burned down. Arson is suspected.

July 27th, 2041

The team has their hearing. Their actual court date will be August 16th. Wilson is able to convince the court to release the three team members on a $50,000 bond each. He contacts Barb Wiley of Barbwire Bonds, and she puts up the money. She also makes it clear to the team that if they try to leave Night City, she will know.

Zen and Riptide try contacting their corporate contacts regarding the city salvage contract, but no one is taking their phone calls.

One person who is taking Riptide’s call is Kaitlyn Jones. She is already on the case and has identified the five vehicles that police say they found the drugs in.

That evening in the news, Arasaka has attacked Militech’s Heywood facility south of Night City. It is now only a matter of time before the corporate war spills into the city itself.
Kahale gets a job as a bouncer at The Afterlife.

July 28th, 2041

Riptide starts working his street contacts. No one is aware of such a large quantity of Blue Glass coming into the city. Diego Entrada had been the primary supplier of the drug and since his demise, there has been very little coming into the states.

Zen calls Mark Vincent, the DEA agent they had worked with in Vegas. He tells Riptide that a large quantity of the product had disappeared after Entrada’s death. It has now reappeared at Jimmy Two Teeth’s. A strong case is being built against them that they must have stolen the drugs themselves and have been sitting on it this entire time. Mark is skeptical, but he says it does not look good for the team.

That evening a gas line break on the north side of town severely damages the Ron Walker Showroom and destroys the Platinum Saloon across the street.

July 29th, 2041

In the news: after successfully pushing Militech out of Chicago, Arasaka’s highest ranking non-Japanese executive Burton Chambers is put in charge of the Night City office.
The team has Mouse break into their own business servers to get a hold of the salvage records. They are able to determine where the vehicles with the drugs had been found.

The team visits the La Croix Restaurant. Two of the cars had been in an accident right out front. Staff at the restaurant report both vehicles were immediately abandoned. The staff give them a description of the two drivers.

They next stop at World Travel Agency. There they are given a similar story about two cars getting in an accident and both cars being abandoned. The description of the two drivers matches that of the two at La Croix.

Finally, they stop at the Hotel Hamilton. The fifth vehicle had been found parked near their valet parking. Once they had determined the car did not belong to a guest, they called to have it towed.

July 30th, 2041

That evening, Kahale is working at the Afterlife when he notices that two of the bartenders closely match the description of the two drivers. He contacts the rest of the team, who arrive in short order.

They begin asking around and learn that the two bartenders, named Allen and Gibson are a couple of small timers that will do just about anything for a couple bucks.
Zen tries to seduce them, but does not get anywhere. Saito tries another
approach and claims to be a porn producer and that he wants to us them in a movie. Amazingly, they buy it.

At about 3:00 AM, they pick up the two and take them to the motel where the movie is to be shot. Once there, they tie the two up and interrogate them. The two claim that the cars were given to them by a man named Alexander Crychek, who paid them to crash the cars and abandon them.

They do a little digging and learn that Alexander Crychek is the owner of the Rainbow Nights club, an aspiring music producer, and a member of the Russian mob. His two most lucrative businesses (allegedly) are drugs and human trafficking.

When they return home, they find Helios waiting for them. He finally got bored sitting in prison and posted bond.

July 31st, 2041

The team arrives at Rainbow Nights, a 24/7 dance club, and are ushered into the office area. They are told that Mr. Crychek does not come in until 9:00 PM. They demand to see him at once and indicate they are not leaving until they talk to him. Two hours later, they accept that he is not coming to see them, so they leave.

At 9:00 pm, they return to Rainbow Nights and again ask to see Crychek. This time they are ushered into his ridiculously large office that is mostly empty space except for his desk, a couple of lamps and a couch on which sits two girls who sole job it appears is to hold down the couch.

They tell him that they own Jimmy Two-Teeth’s and he offers his sympathies for their recent troubles. They point out that they know he is behind their recent troubles and he does not deny it. He simply dismisses it as nothing personal.

When they ask who he did this for, he says that to reveal his client could potentially be costly for him financially. He thinks about it for a moment and says there is a way they could make it up to him. He offers them a simple task that will gain him enough money to offset what he will lose by revealing his client.

He tells them that there is a band that he would like to sign to his new record label. The problem is that they are already signed to a competitor. It’s an all-girl synth-metal band called Electric Angel. He doesn’t think they are all that good, but they will be a big success anyways. He is hoping they will anchor his new record label. All the team has to do is get their manager to break their existing contract and sign with Cry Havoc records, Crychek’s label. He gives them a copy of the contract.

The team immediately heads to Club Atlantis, where the girls are currently playing a gig. There they track down Larry Nichols, the band’s manager. They speak with him and he makes it clear that he is not interested in signing the contract. They do their best to convince him but he tells them that no matter how good an offer Crychek makes, he would never sign that contract. When asked why, he explains that Crychek is a sex trafficker. He asks the team what they think happens to the girls in the band if they don’t prove to be the money makers that Crychek wants them to be. He will make money off of them one way or another. This gives the team pause and although no one says anything out loud, each debates the ramifications of their next actions.

Finally, Kahale towers over Nichols and explains that Crychek will not be denied. If they don’t comeback with a signed contract, Crychek will kill the girls, kill Larry, and probably his entire family. The intimidation tactic works, and Larry reluctantly signs the contact. The team takes the contract and drives back to Rainbow Nights. It’s a very quiet car ride.

Back in Crychek’s office, they produce the signed contract. He is most pleased. He tells the team that he was hired by three people: Douglas Anderson, Mike McDonald, and Shirley Samuels, the owners of West Side Towing, Auto King Towing, and Night City Towing respectively. West Side Towing had been the previous holder of the city salvage contract.
As they are about to leave, Kahale tells Crychek that if Electric Angel does not prove to be profitable for him, Kahale will buy their contact back from Crychek. Crychek is clearly amused by this offer, but agrees none the less.

August 1st, 2041

The team pays a visit to Night City Towing. There they meet with Shirley Samuels and confront her about the set up. She denies it at first but breaks fairly easily. She tells them it was Doug Anderson’s idea. They put up the money to get Jimmy Two-Teeth’s to lose the contract and then they would propose a joint contract to the city. She said that Doug was pretty bitter about what they had done to him.

They then try to convince her to turn on the other two. She is again reluctant at first, but they make it clear to her that she really does not have a choice. She agrees but they insist that she stays with them. They load her into the van and take the 30 minute drive to Auto King Towing.

When they arrive it is clear that people are upset. When asked what is going on, one of the workers says about 15 minutes prior, a van rolled up, and ‘borg in a Hard Rock T-Shirt stepped out and grabbed owner Mike McDonald. He through Mike in the van and sped off. They have heard nothing since.

They team gets back in their vehicle and begin to look for the van. Zen gets a call from Adam Smasher. He asks her how things are going and says it’s nice to talk to her again. She’s not sure if he’s sarcastic, crazy, or both. He finally gets down to the matter at hand and says that someone wants to meet them this evening at the Night City Park by the lake. She agrees to meet and Adam hangs up.

Saito calls “Buckshot” Betty and asks her is she can meet them and give Shirley a ride home. Betty agrees and they cut Shirley loose.

That afternoon, Kahale walks into the lake and activates his internal oxygen supply. He then hunkers down beneath the surface. Saito gets access to the roof of the Hotel Hamilton with his sniper rifle.

At 10:00 PM the others arrive and wait by the shore of the lake. A few minutes later, Saito watches as an AV takes off from the roof of the Arasaka Tower and flies towards the park. There it circles once and lands next to the lake.

Adam Smasher steps out and greets the team. He then introduces Burton Chambers. Burton steps out, impeccably groomed and dressed, showing all of the confidence in the world. He greets the team and gets right to business.

He has come to make a statement and an offer. The statement is expressed merely by his being there, completely exposed. No matter what they think, the team cannot touch him. Also, and their recent misfortunes would indicate, he has the ability to destroy them.

In that context, he makes his offer. If they tell him where Masslight is, he will undo all of the damage that has been done, and they can get their lives back. If they don’t tell him where Masslight is, he will make all of the evidence that could exonerate them disappear, and their lives are over.

Everyone seems to look to Zen to make the decision. Saito, listening in on the coms, places a call to Mouse. He tells Mouse what is happening and that he better be prepared to bolt. Mouse is adamant that under know circumstances should they tell Burton Chambers where Masslight is.

Chambers reiterates that everything the team has worked so hard for has been taken away. He can give it all back. Meanwhile Saito relays to Zen that Mouse is screaming not to tell Chambers anything. Riptide uses the coms to tell Saito to call Lt. McCarty and let him know that Adam Smasher is at the park and that he has gone crazy.

After what seems like an eternity, Zen finally says no. Burton Chambers expresses his disappointment and tells Smasher to get back in the AV. He says they should remember this moment, when they could have fixed everything, but refused.

Saito lines up his shot and pulls the trigger. Much to everyone’s surprise, the shot misses. Saito curses as the building he has to shoot over must be generating a thermal he didn’t compensate for.

At the park, Chambers looks down at the impact point of the bullet and comments that that was not very civilized. Moments later, the second shot comes, hitting Chambers square in the chest and exploding out his back. The Arasaka executive falls to the ground in a heap. Everyone is surprised as to how easy that was.

The moment is shattered as Adam Smasher begins to laugh. As he closes the door to the AV he says “You guys are so predictable.”

As the AV begins to take off, Zen asks Saito if he can shoot down the AV. He says he could, but instead begins to break down his rifle. Although not yet sure how, he knew they had just been out played and he was done dancing to someone else’s tune for one day.

May 28th, 2041

The day so far had been a busy one, with Masslight hinting at a doomsday scenario and evidence that someone is tracking the team down.

That evening, Riptide has dinner with Kaitlyn Jones. He comments that they have tapped all of their available sources and still have not made any progress on figuring out where Alfredo Bruga or The Luna Family were. Katrina suggests that maybe it’s time he puts on his walking shoes and starts pounding the pavement and knocking on some doors himself. She also suggests that it may be a good place to start would be to follow up on Alfredo’s holdings and see what they can learn from there. Riptide shares this advice with the rest of the team, and they decide to take the trip to Seattle to visit Alfredo’s shipping company, Holy Isle shipping.

May 29th, 2041

They take the 14-hour drive to Seattle, arriving on Wednesday afternoon. They talk their way past security and find themselves outside of the Holy Isle Shipping Company. Saito, Helios and Riptide decide to poke around the warehouse while Zen and Kahale go into the office to talk to the staff. Zen claims to be the owner of a latex manufacturing company looking to start up a distribution network. She gets a meeting with the office manager to discuss the details.

Meanwhile Kahale chats up the receptionist, and learns that Alfredo lives in Paris but does visit occasionally. Apparently the last time he came to inspect the warehouses was about 4 months ago. He also learns that Alfredo named the company after a poem about the Greek Iles, a place he is very fond of.

The others do not find much of interest in the warehouse, but Helios does find out that a ship named the Acadia will be heading for Greece in 4 days. Helios and Saito apply for jobs to work aboard the ship.

May 29th – June 1st, 2041

The team spends the next several days staking out the shipyards seeing if Alfredo or Tobias show up, but there is no sign of either of them. The day before the ship is set to set sail, Saito learns that he has been accepted to be hired on as a ship crewman on the Acadia.

June 2nd, 2041

The Acadia sets sail for Greece with Saito on board. The rest of the team takes a day and a half journey to Houston to visit the wind farm that Alfredo owns.

June 3rd, 2041

At the wind farm, the team talks to the site manager and learns a similar story: that Alfredo only visits a couple times a year and he hasn’t been here in about 4 months. The team decides to return to Night City
.
June 4th, 2041

Riptide contacts Mouse and asks him to do some digging on Alfredo Bruga. Mouse says that most of the urgent work he was doing for Masslight is now done so he has some time to help the team.

June 5th, 2041
Mouse contacts Riptide and says he’s learned that Alfredo was the one who called in the debt on IHAG, which resulted in the collapse of the company. It was this collapse that led to the corporate war between OTEC and CINO, which then evolved into the current war between Arasaka and Militech. He has also learned that Alfredo paid to have a chef from Kavala Greece flown to Nice, France to work in his restaurant there.

[[June 6th – June 10th, 2041*

The team goes about their normal routines while they figure out their next move. Riptide takes Katrina to spend a few days at a couple’s spa and retreat.

Ultimately it is decided that Paris will be the next stop in their list as Alfredo has a home there. They book a flight that leaves in three days.

June 11th, 2041

In the news, Militech launches a major assault against Arasaka in Chicago.

June 12th, 2041

The battle in Chicago turns into all out warfare and people flee the city by the thousands.

June 13th, 2041

The team, minus Saito, who is currently somewhere in the North Atlantic, boards their plane to France. Due to airline policy, they are forced to leave the explosives at home.

June 14th, 2014

At 3:00 AM local time, the team arrives in Paris and heads to the house they rented for the week to catch a few hours of sleep.

In the late morning, Helios and Kahale head to Alfredo’s house. They circle the perimeter of the small walled estate and take note of the security cameras. Thermo scans with their cyberoptics indicate that no one is home.

A short time later, Zen and Riptide arrive and go straight to the front gate. They hit the buzzer but get no answer. Kahale rips one of the cameras off the wall. Since this may have triggered an alarm, they decide to move quickly.

Helios picks the lock to the front door and they are in. A security panel starts beeping but Helios only needs moments to disarm the alarm. They search the house, finding very little of interest. Nothing seems out of place, but it would appear that they were not the only ones to go through the house.

Eventually, in the garbage can of one of the guest rooms, they find an invoice for a company called Safe Zone Safe Houses. It has a contact name: Erasmus Hano, and a number. The team decides to exit the house before any police show up.

Riptide calls Mouse in Night City where it is currently the middle of the night. He asks Mouse to look into Safe Zone. Mouse says he will in the morning.

The team decides they have done all they can do until they hear back from Mouse. Zen and Riptide spend the rest of the day taking in the sites. Helios and Kahale on the other hand, rent a car and take the nine hour drive to Nice.

Around 10:00 PM, the two arrive in Nice and go to the restaurant owned by Alfredo Bruga. It is also the restaurant where Alfredo flew in a chef named Pallav from Kavala Greece. They have a nice meal, and speak with the chef. He says he is a friend of Alfredo’s, but has not seen him in many months.

Afterwards, they stake out the restaurant and follow Pallav home. They check out the house and determine that no one else is living there. They begin the nine hour drive back home.

That evening, Mouse calls Riptide to tell him that the Safe Zone Datafortress is an ICEball. He doesn’t think it’s an actual functioning system, just a fortress crammed full of anti-intrusion software. After that fiasco, he checked around and found the company has two offices, one in Athens, Greece and the other in Paris, France. The company seems to have no other assets and did not seem to exist prior to two months ago.

June 15th, 2041

First thing in the morning, Zen and Riptide head to the Safe Zone office. There Zen again adopts her cover as the owner of a latex manufacturer looking to acquire some safe houses. The woman behind the desk informs her that the office manager, Ernesto, is not currently in, but if they leave her their contact information, she will give it to Ernesto. Zen asks about the company being only two months old. The receptionist says that this office is only two months old, but the company is much older. Zen also pushes her on how secure they keep their client information, and she tells them they have never had a data breach. Eventually they decide to leave her alone and go on their way.

As they head back to the rental home, they notice they have picked up a tail. They also get a call from Ernesto, who apologizes for missing them the first time and they agree to meet later that day.

About this time, Helios and Kahale come rolling back into town. The two groups communicate and update each other. Helios and Kahale begin tailing Zen and Riptide’s tail.

In the early afternoon, Zen and Riptide return to the Safe Zone office. As they go in, their tail parks on the street, followed immediately by Helios and Kahale. The two get out and Kahale steps in front of the vehicle, grabs the front bumper and lifts up the front end of the car. Helios stands at the driver side door and demands to know why he was following the other two.

The driver says he is an employee of Safe Zone who was asked by Ernesto to follow Zen and Riptide. He does not know why. Kahale sets the car down and Helios pulls the driver out of the car and announces they will all visit the office together.

Meanwhile, Zen and Riptide enter the office and are quickly introduced to Ernesto. He tells them a little about the company, insisting that they have been around for longer than two months. About then the other two arrive, and Helios demands to know why Safe Zone was following his “boss”.

Ernesto then admits they he has been monitoring their activity since they showed up at Alfredo’s house. He explains that Alfredo is a client of theirs, and has gone missing. He was to meet them at the airport in Athens, but despite Ernesto’s certainty that Alfredo got on the plane in Paris, he did not arrive at the arrival station at the Athens Airport. They are certain he is in Greece, they just don’t know where. Also, they don’t know if he was abducted, or ditched them for some reason. Either way, the company has a sizable financial penalty they will have to pay if any harm comes to Alfredo.

Since he understands that they are looking for Alfredo as well, he proposes that they work together. If they think they may have a chance to find Alfredo, his company’s resources will be at their disposal. The team accepts the offer. Ernesto says he will arrange a flight to Greece for them.

June 16th, 2041

The team spends its final day in Paris, and that evening board a plane for Athens, Greece.

June 17th, 2041

Early in the morning, the team arrives in Athens. They are greeted at the airport by Elini Nicolo, an operative for Safe Zone. She takes them to the hotel where they will be staying courtesy of Safe Zone.

Later in the morning, after the team has had a chance to get some sleep. Elini picks them up and takes them to the Safe Zone Office. There they are introduced to Erasmus Hano, the owner of safe zone. They discuss how Alfredo would have gotten off the plane without Safe Zone knowing. The team strongly suspects that he had help at the airport and asks Erasmus if he can gain access to records of who was working that day.

While Safe Zone looks into the airport personnel, the team has Elini take them to the shipyard as the Acadia arrives in port today. There they meet Saito who has taken the cheap but slow way to Greece. The nearly three weeks of ship work seems to have done him some good.

June 18th, 2041

They don’t have many leads in Greece, but the one that stands out is that Pallav the chef in Nice, came from Kavala Greece, just a few hours’ drive from here.

In the late morning, they arrive in Kavala. They spend the next few hours checking out every motel and hotel, looking for Alfredo. When that comes up empty, they stop at the restaurant where Pallav used to work. They speak with some of the staff there and confirm that he was friends with Alfredo and jumped at the chance to move to Paris to work there.

The final stop on their list was Pallav’s parent’s house. They drive up and thermo scan the house, revealing three adults inside. Zen and Riptide go to the front door and knock. They are greeted by an elderly woman and ask about Pallav. She confirms the story about Pallav and Afredo, but when asked if anyone else is home, she claims it is only she and her husband. The others circle around the home and Helios spots Alfredo Bruga sitting at the kitchen table.

Zen and Riptide ask Elini to take them back to the restaurant where Pallav had worked while the others watched the place. They are gone for only a few minutes when Saito decides he has a bad feeling about this and goes to the front door. When the woman answers, he pushes his way past and confronts Alfredo.

Alfredo says that he has been on the run from Burton Chambers. He had several business dealings with Burton over the years that proved very profitable for Alfredo. He knew it was only a matter of time before Burton asked for something in return. Burton had contacted him and told him to call in the IHAG debt. Alfredo did not want to as it would kill the company and likely end his job at Eurobank. Burton made it clear that he did not have a choice.

Burton wanted the war between OTEC and CINO. It would be easy to think that this was a move to boost profits for Arasaka. But, Alfredo warns, Burton is an insanely ambitious man, who has already risen as far as he can at Arasaka. No, what Burton wanted was the war between Arasaka and Militech. Alfredo never figured out why. Burton needed this war for another reason. Something he wanted required this war to happen.

They ask Alfredo if he had any proof of this. He says no, but that doesn’t stop Burton from wanting to eliminate any loose ends.

Just then, tires can be heard screeching outside. Saito orders Alfredo to get upstairs. Pallav’s parents hide in the dining room. A van pulls up, and a half dozen armed operatives with sub-machine guns pile out. Three go to the dining room window, which is above their heads as the house is built on a slope, and other three make their way up the steps to the front door.

As Kahale circles around the east side of the house, Helios takes cover behind the short wall that surrounds the small front court yard, giving him full view of the steps.

Zen and Riptide are told over the coms what is happening and order Elini to turn the car around and go back.

At the house, one of the operatives beneath the dining room window smashes the window with the butt of his gun, and another throws a frag grenade inside. It explodes, killing Pallav’s mother and seriously wounding his father. The operatives get ready to scale up into the window when Kahale comes around the far corner and starts laying down suppression fire. One of the operatives catches several bullets, and all three duck for cover.

The other three coming up the front steps are stopped in their tracks when Helios opens fire. They return fire, but even though they have Helios outgunned, he has cover and the high ground, where as they are caught out in the open. Saito joins the fire fight, using the front door way as cover.

Elini, Zen and Riptide are only a couple of blocks away when they are t-boned by another car in an intersection. The driver and front passenger lob grenades into the car, killing Elini, and seriously wounding Zen. Riptide is also wounded, but still combat effective. He returns fire but is outgunned three to one.

At the house, Kahale ceases suppression fire and begins picking off the operatives. As with the front of the house, he is outnumbered, but has the advantage of cover, whereas the others are caught in the open. One by one, the operatives begin to fall until only one remains. He attempts to retreat to the van but Saito and Kahale converge on him and capture him.

Two blocks away, Riptide knows that to stay is suicide, but Zen is still alive and he won’t leave her behind. He leans over to the driver side, grabs the steering and puts his foot on the accelerator. The tires spin for a couple of seconds as the car separates itself from the other one. The other car has enough front end damage that it isn’t going anywhere. But this does not stop the people inside it from shooting at him. Keeping his head down while driving from the passenger seat, Riptide manages to drive away, only sideswiping three parked cards in the process.

Saito interrogated the operative who says he works for Erasmus Hondo. Their mission was to kill Alfredo Bruga. He did not know why and frankly hadn’t asked. As Riptide rolls up the front, hitting another parked car, Saito decides he has learned all he can and executes the operative.

Zen had a Trauma Team card and the team decides it is best to activate it and let her be. They can hear sirens off in the distance and knowing they are all packing hardware that is rather illegal in Greece, they decide to get Alfredo and get in the ops van and vacate the scene. Luckily for Zen the Trauma team unit arrives to pick her up before the local police get there.

Saito makes some calls to some old friends in the Mossad. They have an operative in Turkey who can meet them at the border and help Alfredo disappear again. They take the 90 minute drive to the border and hand him over. They then return to Athens.

In Athens, they find the Safe Zone offices have been cleared out. No sign remains that the company ever existed. Riptide calls Mouse and sees if he can track Erasmus Hando. Mouse is able to determine that Erasmus is on a flight to India. Saito again calls his contacts asks if someone can meet Erasmus at the airport and eliminate him. They assure him that it will be taken care of.

Zen is once again in the hospital and the rest of the team prepares to return home. Hopefully, Alfredo is out of Burton’s clutches for good. The new question left unanswered is why Burton wanted a war between Arasaka and Militech. As Alfredo had said, he really has nothing to gain financially has no room left for advancement in Arasaka. What did he have to gain by starting this corporate war?

May 19th, 2041

Riptide contacts Kaitlyn Jones for some information. She immediately asks what he wants since the only time she hears from him is when he needs something. He apologizes and then immediately asks her about Biotechnica and Tobias Luna . She says she will look into it and update him over dinner at the Wing Chang Chinese Restaurant, the most expensive restaurant in Night City. Riptide also contacts Mouse to see how things are going with him. Mouse wants to know why Biotechnica showed up at the beach the other night when the team was unloading their cargo. Riptide doesn’t have the answer to that and tries to enlist Mouse’s help but Mouse says he is too busy right now.

Riptide has dinner that evening with Katrina. The food and service are excellent, but the information is what he came for. She tells him that Tobias had resigned three days ago and his replacement, Phil Cohen does not know where he is. Tobias seems to have disappeared. There is no record of him taking transportation out of Night City, but he did remove his son from school and seems to have disappeared with his father. The only other information she could find on Tobias is that he was looking for a hacker named Flatspin Some follow up investigation with Riptide’s street contacts reveals that Flatspin hangs out at the Caf-Caf Coffee House.

May 20th – May 23rd, 2041

The team members focus on their own individual concerns as wells as maintaining the salvage business.

May 24th, 2041

The team pays a visit to the Caf-Caf. Kahale watches out front while Saito monitors the back. Riptide andZen head inside.
Inside the Caf-Caf, the space is divided into two sections, a net café on one side, and a Brain Dance Center on the other. Riptide asks the girl behind the counter if she knows who Flatspin is, and she points to a very large African American man sitting in the Brain Dance Center. Riptide and Zen approach him and ring the “doorbell” a button that lets a jacked-in person know that someone in the outside world needs to talk to them. The man comes out of his session and Riptide asks him if he is Flatspin and what he knows about Tobias Luna. The man claims he is Flatspin, but says he has never heard of Tobias. Flatspin says he specializes in finding people. Zen notices that there’s something slightly off about the man in the way he responds to questions. They try asking him further questions but he refuses to give them any more information.

They offer him some money to do an immediate search for Tobias Luna. Flatspin agrees and says it will take several minutes. They step away from him and give Mouse a call. They asked him to monitor what Flatspin is doing to find Tobias Luna. Mouse is growing increasingly irritated with constant interruptions to his work and demands a $1,000 for his time. Zen can’t believe that he is charging them for this, but agrees.

They go back in and speak to Flatspin. He says he has found nothing. He can do a much deeper dive but it will take much more time and money.

They call Mouse to see if he was able to trace Flatspin’s activities. He tells them that Flatspin did nothing as far as he could tell and that his only communication from that point is to another table on the other side of the Caf-Caf specifically table number 12.

They look over to table number 12 and see a young woman who is jacked into the net. They walkover and hit the doorbell button. The woman emerges from the net and asks them what they want. They ask her why she is communicating with the gentleman on the other side of the room. She gives them an odd look and says she has no idea what they’re talking about. They ask her about Flatspin and Tobias Luna, and she says she has never heard of either of them.

Zen calls Mouse and says the girl has no idea what they are talking about. Mouse says he does not know what the exact communication was, but the two were definitely sharing what appeared to be some form of sensory data.

They confront the woman again, this time a little more forcefully. After some thinly veiled threats, she relents and admit that she is Flatspin. She says that the man on the other side of the room is someone whom she pays to let her use as a meat puppet that she can control and communicate through. He acts as a human false front because he appears much more intimidating. People tend to take him more seriously and are less likely to mess with him.

She explains to them that Tobias Luna had approached her and asked her to look into the location of a man named Alfredo Bruga. They recognize his name as the man that they were told that Burton Chambers was looking for. It turns out that she was already looking for Alfredo Bruga on behalf of someone else. She turned Luna down because she figured he knew that she was already looking for Bruga, and she felt helping him would be selling out her other client. She did not know whom the other client was, as she was being paid through an anonymous service.

They offer her some immediate cash if she is willing to throw them a bone and tell them some of what she’s learned so far. She is reluctant at first but they convince her they do not care who her client is. She tells them that Alfredo was a financier for Eurobank. He up and disappeared a couple of months ago. He owns several holdings worldwide including a home in Paris, a Greek restaurant in Nice France, a castle in Edenborough, a wind farm in Houston, and he’s owns a shipping company in Seattle.

They thank her for the information, and tells her that the offer still stands to find Tobias Luna for them. She agrees, and they go on their way.

May 25th, 2041

Zen pays a visit to Krissy to see how she is doing. The young solo is still working on getting used to her new cyberlimbs having lost most of her natural limbs in the explosion in the Combat Zone during a mission that went badly.

May 26th, 2041

Riptide contacts Mouse for some help but Mouse says he doesn’t have time to assist them in anything right now. Riptide asks Mouse who he was working for regarding the job they did smuggling in the crates off of the cargo ship. Mouse says that naturally he’s not at liberty to say.

Riptide asks Kahale who he was working for, and Kahale says that the job was given to him by a man named Edgar Cole. The team remembers Edgar Cole as a former Biotechnica employee with whom they worked with the help smuggle the clone Adam to the Midway Freehold.

May 27th, 2041

Riptide contacts Edger Cole and asks him about what was in the packages that they helped smuggle. Edger says he can’t say but he would have thought that the team would have put two and two together by now and figured it out. He gets nothing more from Edgar, but when he gets together with the rest of the team and they discuss it, they realize that there’s a high probability that the crates that they smuggled in were probably some form of mainframe system meant to house Masslight.

May 28th, 2041

They decide to head to the warehouse where they last left Mouse to confront him and find out what exactly is going on. They find the warehouse has installed some state-of-the-art security equipment, with no visible way to open any of the doors or windows. They contemplate how to get in when one of the doors suddenly opens on its own.

They step in and find computer equipment sprawled everywhere. Mouse, who looks like he hasn’t eaten or slept in days is busy running some cable across the room when he sees them enter. He is less than pleased to see them and demands to know if they are sure no one followed them. They assure him that they were not and that no one knows about this place.

They ask him if he’s working for Masslight and he says yes. They are about to question him further when the room is filled with the sound of a voice emanating from every direction. The voice says it’s Masslight and that he realized that Arasaka had discovered his location at the Midway Freehold so he decided to move to Night City. They ask him why he would come to Night City he says that he believes that this is where the end game will take place. They ask him what he means by the end game. Masslight says that forces are in play that will be coming to a head within the next few weeks, and there was a high probability it would be centered here in Night City. He will not divulge any further information as he is not yet confident enough in his calculations, but he does say that not only is the team in danger, but all of humanity as well. He has not yet decided what steps, if any, he would take to save them.

They ask him what help he would be willing to give them, and at this point all he is willing to say is that the key to discovering more about what was going on lay in finding Alfredo Bruga and Tobias Luna. They ask him why Arasaka is looking for him, and the AI tells them that Arasaka has begun a campaign of eliminating every intelligent construct and independent AI they can find. Dr. Kilacho was one of those constructs that they sought out and destroyed.

Masslight and Dr. Kilatcho had worked together on some research regarding the translation of human consciousness into digital form. This was the task for which Masslight had been designed by Biotechnica. Masslight determined that there was great danger in Biotechnica gaining this technology, so with the help of Dr. Kilatcho, he escaped.

But Biotechnica was not the only one researching this type of technology. Raven Micro-Cybernetics had developed an implant that was designed to record brain patterns to help facilitate this sort of translation. The technology was stolen by Torrent, who didn’t fully understand its intent, and had it implanted in his own head. It was destroyed when he took down the Arasaka prison.

There was also an attempt by Infotech called Project Apotheosis that was co-funded by Biotechnica. The nature of this project is currently unknown to Masslight.

Arasaka itself had dabbled in this type of technology years ago when they had created the Soul Killer virus. However use of the virus was so controversial, that it almost destroyed the company. They claim to have wiped out every copy of it and destroyed the research, however it is strongly believed that copies of the virus still live within Arasaka’s most secure vaults.

The team leaves Mouse and Masslight to their work. They question what Masslight is really up to and if he had just threatened to destroy humanity.

Riptide calls Colin Fisk and asks him what he knows about where Arasaka keeps its most protected assets. Colin says that he believes that Arasaka has several vaults located within its world headquarters in Tokyo, but beyond that he knows nothing. Riptide inquire as to what Colin knows about Alfredo or Tobias, to which Colin answers he knows nothing.

Apoc contacts Saito and lets him know that someone has been putting feelers out in the arms market looking for private citizens who have been buying up .50 Caliber Electrothermal rounds. Since that is a short list of people and Saito is on it, Apoch felt it best to give Saito a heads up. Saito checks with Dollar Bill, the fixer with whom Saito buys the tank killing ammunition. Dollar Bill confirms that someone has been tracing sales of the ammo, but so far he knows, no one has traced a purchase to him or to Saito.

Saito speculates that this may have something to do with the incident with the Cult of the New Dawn, since that is the last place where he used his .50 caliber Electrothermal Rifle and Arasaka was directly involved. Riptide calls the surviving members of a cult, and ask them if anyone has been asking about the team. They indicate that they are not aware of anyone that was looking for them.

A picture was beginning to form. A picture with bigger implications than what any of them had imagined. But just as things seemed to start to come together, they couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was slowly tightening a noose around them.

April 11th, 2041 – May 8th, 2041

The team spends the next couple of weeks recovering from their recent adventures. Business returns to normal as they each go about their day jobs plus managing their salvage business.

One point of Interest though: Riptide decides to investigate something that has been bothering him for some time. He seeks out Alys Grant, with whom he and the team had a run in a few years back. He wants to know how she was always managing to live beyond her means, something the team never looked into at that time. He finds Alys still living at the same place and asks her about it. Naturally, she is at first reluctant to talk to him but eventually reveals to him that her adopted son Jace Grant, was part of an Infotech project known as Project Apotheosis. She knew a little about the project itself, only that they were paying her considerable money to raise the child. Jace no longer lived with her, as he was taken to a special academy run by Infotech.

May 9th, 2041

Riptide is watching reports on the news about Militech expanding its bombing campaign against important Arasaka targets when he gets a phone call from Mouse. Mouse says he has a job for the team regarding a ship that will be coming into the port on the 16th. The ship contains cargo that cannot go through customs. The job is to offload the cargo before it reaches shore. The details are: three roughly refrigerator-size crates weighing 3 ½ tons each, stored in a single cargo container on the ship. Customs could do a surprise inspection of the ship as far out as 30 miles from shore, therefore the crates need to be offloaded prior to the ship coming in within 30 miles. The crew of the transport ship know nothing about what is being planned, however they will have a man on board by the name of Kahale who will help unload the cargo and escort it into Night City where it needs to be dropped off. The pay is $10,000 a piece plus any reasonable expenses.

Riptide talks to the rest of the team about the job and they agree to take the job. The try to pry Mouse for information regarding the contents of the crates and who he is working for. Mouse stays mum for the most part but lets them know that the contents of the crates are fairly fragile. Mouse gives Riptide a scrambled satellite phone with which he can contact Kahale. They speak to Kahale, and find out that he is also unaware of what is in the crates.

May 10th – May 14th, 2041

The team begins planning how they’re going to offload the crates from the cargo ship. At first they consider simply bribing a customs official to make sure that the ship goes through port without inspection. However, when they suggest this the Mouse, he makes it clear that the ship must not arrive in port with those crates still on board. Although he does not give any details, he is concerned that there may be people at the port who know that the ship is coming in and will attempt to intercept the cargo there.

They talk to Kahale about the defenses on the ship. While the freighter is hardly a warship, it is fairly well armed to defend against pirates. They debate whether to approach this job via ship or via a helicopter. The challenge of the helicopter is that there are not that many helicopters short of a Chinook heavy lifter that can lift 10 tons of cargo, and they tend to be very slow and noisy. They also then debate using another ship, but then the question becomes how they get the cargo from one ship to the other.

Zen talks to Dollar Billl about getting her hands on an Electronic Warfare Suite. He says he can get one to her by the end of the week but that kind of rushed job will be very expensive. At first Zen is hesitant, but then remembers that all expenses are being paid for by their unknown employer, so she agrees to the deal.

As the debate continues regarding whether to use a ship or a helicopter, Saito suggests using a blimp. There are blimps that are capable of carrying heavy cargo over considerably long distances. While they are slow and vulnerable to attack, they are extremely quiet and it would allow them to perhaps stealthily take the crate from the ship without the crew ever being aware it was happening. They confirm with Kahale that the cargo container in question has been placed on top of the cargo stack on the ship. The question now is where they get their hands on a blimp.

Against his own better judgement, Riptide places a call to Tobias Luna. He asks Luna if Biotechnica has a blimp they can borrow. Luna points out that this is a rather odd request, but they do in fact have a blimp. He will gladly loan it to the team in exchange, as usual, for a favor. Knowing what that usually means Riptide, grits his teeth and agrees to the deal. The team now has a blimp.

The team then decides that hauling the cargo all the way into the city suspended beneath the blimp might not be a good idea. Riptide does some asking around and finds a boat captain who will be willing to take on the cargo and bring it on to shore no questions asked.

So the plan is to fly the blimp out to meet the cargo ship. They’ll use the electronic warfare suite to block the ship’s radar and communications. Helios will pilot the blimp, Zen will descend down onto the ship and help Kahale secure the cargo, while Saito remains on the blimp providing cover. Once the cargo is secure, it, along with Zen and Kahale will be hoisted back up and the blimp will head back towards the coast. Somewhere just off of shore, they will rendezvous with the boat that Riptide has hired. The cargo and the team, except for Helios, well then load onto the boat and take the boat to a location north of Night City that the captain has assured them no one will disturb them. The team will have a couple of their employees from the salvage company meet them with that location. There they will load the cargo onto of a truck and take it into Night City to its final destination. The plan is in place. What could possibly go wrong?

May 15th, 2041

Surprisingly little actually. The plan pretty much goes off exactly as intended. On the evening of the 15th Riptide goes to meet with the boat crew while the others head to the airport. There they use the passcodes given by them by Thomas Luna to access the blimp. Once on the blimp they find out it is designed for silent running, which is definitely to their advantage. They also find out it holds a military grade bio-containment chamber. The implications of this they try not to think about. They set up the electronic warfare suite and the stealth blimp heads out over the ocean.

The blimp, under the electronic cover of the electronic warfare suite approaches the ship. While they have electronic stealth, tonight happens to be a full moon. Helios is careful to approach the ship in a manner that minimizes the chances of being spotted.

Zen lowers down on a cable and meets with Kahale, a surprisingly large man with a metal cowl. They attach the cables to the cargo box and along with it are hoisted up by the blimp. The blimp then turns away and heads back towards shore with the crew of the freighter apparently completely unaware of what has just happened.

Also as planned, they rendezvous with the boat where Riptide and the boat’s crew are waiting for them. Everyone is loaded onto the boat and the boat begins it makes its way towards the designated landing spot.

Helios takes the blimp back to the Night City Airport and drops it off in the Biotechnica lot where they had picked it up. Once out of the airport, he heads to the nearest drinking hole and saddles up to the bar waiting for confirmation that the rest of the mission has been completed.

The boat closes in on the designated landing area. As planned the flatbed truck from Jimmy Two Teeth’s is waiting there as well. However when the team members with thermal optics in their eyes scan the truck, they notice that there’s virtually no body heat coming from the two employees.

Zen and Saito disembark from the boat using a zodiac and head to shore. Saito uses his sniper rifle to cover the truck as Zen circles her way around the beach coming up to the truck from the rear. When she opens the door to the cabin if she finds two men in the truck who are not their employees. Instead they are to operatives in thermos-shielding armor, one of them holding a gun to her head. He tells her he intends to take the cargo from them. The conversation comes to an abrupt end when Saito fires his rifle, killing the driver. Off in the distance they hear the sound of heavy truck engines fire up and begin to drive towards them.

Before they can make there get away two Biotechnica Security APC’s roll up. Both begin opening fire with their turrets as a score of tactical troopers pour out the back of the vehicles. A firefight ensues.

Zen is completely out in the open, and Saito isn’t in much of a better position either. They are quickly outnumbered and outgunned. Zen goes full auto, while Saito begins picking off soldiers as quickly as possible with his sniper rifle. But things are definitely not going their way.

Riptide contacts Mouse and asks what Biotechnica’s involvement is with the cargo. Mouse says he has no idea. He was worried about interference from Arasaka, not Biotechnica.

Riptide orders the boat to come close to the shore so that he and Kahale can provide supporting fire. Kahale removes his cloak, revealing he is a heavily augmented cyborg sporting four arms. A couple of those arms are equipped with implanted weapons including a rocket launcher. Bullets, bombs, smoke grenades, and rockets are flying at every which direction. A small war has broken out on the shore like a mini D-Day. Luckily for the team, apparently Biotechnica did not bother to bring air support. If they had, the team would have been thoroughly screwed.

Luckily the team is able to cause enough casualties that the Biotechnica soldiers choose not to press their attack. If they wanted to, the security squads could have wiped out the team, but probably at near total loss to themselves as well. Not being paid enough to be that hardcore, the remaining soldiers pile back into the one APC still mobile and drive off.

At the same time, Zen and Saito manage to retreat back to the boat where they are picked up by Riptide. The boat heads away from shore avoiding the danger of any long-range fire from the Biotechnica team. Once they confirm, however, that the Biotechnica team has retreated, they quickly make their way back to shore, transfer the cargo to the flatbed truck. They scan the truck and find multiple tracers. They remove all of the tracers, and take the crates on the final stretch of their journey into Night City..

Following the directions given to them by Mouse, they find themselves in a warehouse district on the southwest side of city. There the cargo is unloaded, and Mouse quickly checks to make sure everything is intact. He still isn’t telling them what’s in the crates but he pays them the promised money.

They also learn that Kahale is doing this job in exchange for information. Mouse tells Kahale that Winston Lee was working for a man named Adam Smasher, who in turn works for an Arasaka executive named Burton Chambers. The team doesn’t know what Kahale’s relationship is with these three men, but they are more than familiar with these three names. During the data mine that uncovered this information, Mouse’s employer also discovered that Burton Chambers is desperately but covertly looking for a man named Alfredo Bruga.

Kahale asks the team if they have a place he can crash. They know nothing about him, but clearly his history is somehow intertwined with theirs. They agree give him a place to stay, get into the truck, and drive back to Jimmy Two-Teeths, leaving Mouse to go about his strange business.

Although they can check off another job as successfully completed, this one is leaving an awful lot of lingering questions. What was the cargo that they just smuggled into the city? Who is Mouse working for that clearly has access to a lot of money, a lot of resources, and a lot of information? Why was Arasaka so interested? Is Biotechnica interested as well, or did Tobia Luna just finally pick this moment to betray the team? What was Burton Chambers up to, and did they need to care?

April 5th, 2041

A new corporate war has officially begun. In the aftermath of the corporate war between CINO and OTEC, the corporation’s two security contractors, Arasaka and Militech respectively, are now in direct conflict with each other.

April 6th – April 8th, 2041

The corporate war quickly escalates. The two corporations have begun unleashing their paramilitary troops and equipment. Reports of power armor and tanks being used in conflicts are starting to become more common. The nations and states that have “hosted” these conflicts have thus far been willing to overlook them as long as collateral damage has been kept to a minimum. Both corporations have also been making considerable payments to governments to avoid sanctions as a result of their actions.

April 9th, 2041

Riptide gets a phone call. On the other end of is a voice from the past, one Dr. Kilacho. The doctor has urgent need for the team`s services. Apparently Arasaka has decided to move on the compound that belongs to the Cult of the New Dawn cult located in Warren, Idaho. The reasons for this is currently unknown to the doctor, but he considers these cult members to be his children, and it is therefore very important that they be protected. His communications have been cut off with the compound so he has no way of warning them as to what is coming. He offers Riptide a sizable sum of $250,000 if they can get to Warren, Idaho and rescue the cult members before Arasaka attacks. Riptide negotiates for a half million dollars to which Dr. Kilacho agrees without hesitation.

Riptides calls his contact at Militech, Colin Fisk. He asks Colin if Militech has any assets in the Warren, Idaho area. Collin tells him that Militech does have a small operations base in Boise, Idaho, but it is pretty much locked down right now due to a recent incident. He tells Riptide that he’s not likely going to be able to offer much help or equipment. He does also mention however that there was a recent theft at the compound, with a couple of large crates of assault rifles having been stolen. Riptide asks if Militech has a hangar at the Boise Airport that they can make use of as a staging area. That request Colin is able to oblige.

Helios calls his buddies in the nomad group known as the Mountaineers. He asked if there’s any way that they can get to Warren, Idaho with a couple of trucks to help them transport some people. They indicate that they are willing to help for the right price. They also inquire as to whether there was any chance that they were going to get shot at. Helios indicates that there is a small chance that might happen. The price is negotiated and the Mountaineers indicate they’ll be able to bring a couple of trucks to Warren in about a day’s time.

The team begins to make preparations and gather their gear. They make arrangements to rent a vehicle and two motorcycles in Boise to be ready when they arrive. Dr. Kilacho has already made arrangements for a private jet.

In the afternoon, the team is all loaded up and head to the Night City Airport. There they take the private jet to Boise, Idaho. Once in Boise they waste no time and unloading the gear from the plane and getting into the vehicles. They then immediately head out to the Warren.

April 10th, 2041

Shortly after midnight, the team arrives at the gates of the compound belonging to the Children of the New Dawn. Riptide goes up to the gate and demands to speak with Huntley, the man he’d work with the last time they were there. The guards make him wait several minutes, but eventually Huntley shows up. Based on his disheveled appearance, it’s clear that they rousted him out of bed.

Riptide quickly begins to explain the situation. Huntley seems to be having difficulty believing that Arasaka wants to raid their little compound. He does eventually agree to let them in. He takes them to one of their storage buildings where he shows them several crates that had recently showed up. The team looks inside the crates and realizes that these are the weapons that were stolen from the Militech base in Boise. Huntley has no idea why they showed up here or where they had even came from. At first the team thinks this is an opportunity to arm all of the cult members until it is pointed out that while the crates are full of assault rifles, there is not a single round of ammunition included.

Riptide again talks about needing to evacuate the compound. They ask why the Kilacho has not warned them himself. He explains that Dr. Kilacho has been unable to reach them. The cults own computer techs confirm that they are overdue for contact with Kilacho. Riptide is ultimately able to convince Huntley and the others they need to evacuate the compound. They begin packing up their personal items, but the one thing is going to take the longest is the computer server that has been used to house Dr. Kilacho’s construct. Doctor Kilacho’s consciousness is not currently in the server, however he will eventually need to return to it at some point, so the cultists refuse to leave it behind. They indicate that should take roughly two hours to disassemble it.

As the cult members begin packing their things, Saito and Zen set up det chord in various locations on the compound fence so that if needed, they can blow holes in the fence to escape in various directions. They also plant multiple claymores along the road leading up to the front gate of the compound. They then take up watch in guard towers in opposite corners of the compound. Helios stands on top of the truck that he will be driving. Riptide concentrates his efforts on keeping the packing operation moving as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Around 2 a.m., Helios picks up the heat signature of an AV-11 assault aerodyne. He watches as it hovers above the ground roughly ½ mile away. From the aerodyne drops 10 figures that literally hit the ground running and begin moving towards the compound at superhuman speed. Helios quickly realizes that all 10 are wearing combat power armor. As the power armor suits close on the compound from the west, an Arasaka Combat 10 APC pulls up to the front gate on the south side.

Zen opens fire on the APC despite knowing there is little chance she will damage the armored vehicle. The vehicle responds by opening fire with a turret mounted minigun on the guard tower that Zen is in. She is forced to hit the ground as the entire tower is saturated with flying lead.

On the west side, the power armor troops reach the fence and easily push their way through it. On the south side a squad of ten men in standard combat armor emerge from the APC wearing insignias that mark them as Arasaka soldiers. They begin moving towards the front gate. The APC’s minigun continues to pelt the guard tower with bullets, forcing Zen to stay down.

Saito opens fire with his sniper rifle, the armor-piercing electro-thermal round puncturing a suit of power armor, dropping the PA trooper. The remaining PA troopers immediately return fire on Saito’s guard tower. He is forced to duck and cover, but from his protected position he hits the detonator button on the claymores mounted by the front gate. Half of the soldiers moving towards the front gate are instantly shredded.

The cultists finally finish loading up Helios’ truck. He plugs into the vehicle link and starts it up. He begins driving towards the east side of the compound. The cult’s bus, loaded with most of the cult members, follows right behind him. He hits a detonator button, setting off the det chord on the east fence blowing a hole in it big enough for him to drive his truck through. As he emerges through the fence however, he sees a heat signature of something off in the distance on the east side of the compound. It takes him a moment to realize what he’s looking at, an Arasaka walker tank. The tank, mounted on six legs, is slowly making its way towards the compound. It has clearly detected the truck making a break for it, and its main turret turns towards the truck. Helios slams the truck hard to the right as the tank open fire. The truck takes a couple of hits from the tank’s autocannon, but it still continues to function.

The cult members that have been packing up the server finally finish their task. They start up their truck and begin to drive toward the compound fence. However they are quickly met by several of the Arasaka PA troopers who open fire. The driver and his co-pilot are instantly killed. The power armor troopers split up with half of the squad beginning to secure the server equipment, while the other half continues to deal with Saito in the guard tower.

Out of the back of the Combat 10 APC emerges a full conversion cyborg wearing a Hard Rock Café t-shirt. As the other members of the Elite Squad continue to exchange fire with Zen, the cyborg casually strolls through the front gates and starts walking towards where the PA troopers are securing the vehicle with the server.

With the truck Helios was driving now out of the compound, and the one holding the server equipment clearly disabled and in the hands of Arasaka, Riptide decides to get on his motorcycle and get out of the compound. As he’s leaving however he comes in the line of sight of the cyborg who opens fire with his 14 mm heavy pistol. The bullets blow large holes in the engine of the motorcycle and it immediately dies beneath Riptide. Riptide is able to quickly recover and is instantly on his feet and moving towards the exit.

Saito risks being hit to take a shot with his sniper rifle. He hits the cyborg square in the head. The cyborg is clearly surprised to be hit, while Saitos equally surprised the cyborg is still standing. The cyborg begins to move towards cover but Saito fires again this time knocking him down. Unfortunately the exposed Saito is then hit by fire from the power armor troopers, one of the rounds shattering the bone is right arm.

Helios parks the truck where there is thickest copse of trees that he can find, hoping to shield it from the firepower of the walker tank. Unfortunately the bus full of cult members is not so lucky, and is quickly riddled by bullets and cannon fire from the tank. The bus is quickly disabled and about a third of the cult members are killed. The surviving called members evacuate the bus and run towards where Helios has parked his truck.

Things are looking rather dire for the team as Zen is still under suppression fire from the APC and several surviving members of the Arasaka Tactical Unit begin moving on her position. Sato is wounded and having trouble holding his sniper rifle. He takes another shot, downing another power armor trooper, but the remaining three are quickly moving to the base of his tower he is in. Helios is in a relatively safe position, but it’s only a matter of a few moments before the walker tank arrives and then they are all screwed.

Finally a sign of hope as from the south the headlights are seen from the two Mountaineers trucks. Helios directs all of the surviving cult members to move towards the oncoming trucks. Riptide opens fire on the APC using his ramjet pistols. The shells bounced off, but it distracts the APC for its continued onslaught on Zen’s guard tower. Helios uses his grenade launcher to launch a couple of flechette rounds at the Arasaka soldiers moving to the base of Zen’s guard tower. It slows them down but it does not stop them. Moments later they’re heading up the ladder towards the top of the tower. Zen is forced to jump out of the tower landing on the ground outside of the compound fence.

With the server equipment secured, the power armor troopers move towards the south end of the compound to provide assistance. They waive off the Walker tank as they decide to deal with the remaining team members themselves.

Over on the northwest tower, Saito knows that if he stays in the tower, he’s dead. Unfortunately, jumping from the tower is likely to kill him as well. Choosing likely death over certain death, he takes the leap. As he falls to the ground he triggers the don the explosives mounted in the base of the tower catching the power armor troops in the explosion. The power armor troops are ultimately unharmed but it takes them a moment to recover from what happened. This buys Saito enough time to peel himself off the ground and crawl into the brush outside of the compound.

On the other side, Helios is able to break away from the fight, get into the truck, and drive away. Riptide and Zen are not so lucky, and are captured by the power armor troopers. Each one is in the death grip of a trooper who carries them back to where the truck with the server equipment is located.

Once Saito is in the cover of the brush he opens fire on the PA troopers again, taking out another one. A few moments later the assault aerodyne returns and hovers a few thousand feet west of the compound. The PA troopers remain motionless. Saito takes a shot at another shot at a PA trooper and the aerodyne immediately opens fire on his position. Saito narrowly escapes getting killed, and realizes the troopers are triangulating his position and using the aerodyne to return fire. Not wanting to leave his team members behind, but knowing that the next pull of his trigger would likely get him killed, Saito slowly retreats farther into the forest.

Zen and Riptide are secured inside the APC and are questioned by an Arasaka officer. He demands to know what happened to the crates of military weapons. They let him know that the weapons were safely removing the compound already. The team is unsure why Arasaka wants the crate of weapons so badly, they have plenty of their own. The officer says he is willing to trade them for the rifles. Riptide gets ahold of Helios and also conference calls in Colin Fisk, but does so without letting Arasaka know. Negotiations commence and eventually they agree to meet at the entry to the compound at 4 a.m. to make the exchange.

They ask the officer why Arasaka is attacking the Children of the Dawn. He does not give them a straight answer but indicates that Dr. Kilacho was a threat. As they wait for the exchange time, they watch Arasaka technicians reinstall and modify the servers. After some sometime, once of the technicians gives a signal to the officer, who tells Zen and Riptide that Dr. Kilacho is no more.

At 4 a.m. the exchange takes place without incident. The weapons are given to Arasaka and Zen and Riptide are released. Most of the team opts to head for home, while Saito get dropped off in Boise and checks himself into a hospital. Riptide contacts Colin who indicates that Militech is going to take action against the Arasaka force at some point, but the team hears nothing more on this matter.

Later that day they hear on the news about how about Arasaka is taking some heat for assaulting The Cult of the Dawn compound. Their excuse is that the Cult of the Dawn was a front for Militech and was housing military weapons. They use the crates of Militech rifles found in the compound as proof of this fact. Naturally Militech denies these claims, insisting the rifles were planted.

The team does not receive the big payment they had been promised. Mouse does some digging and learns that Dr. Kilacho has disappeared off of the Net. It would seem that the purpose of Arasaka’s attack on the Cult of the Dawn was to eliminate Dr. Kilatcho. But why? What threat did he pose to them that they felt they needed to take time in the middle of a corporate war to eliminate him?

February 10th – February 21st, 2041

Actions between CINO and OTEC continue to escalate. Unlike before, these actions now bring the two corporation’s security contractors, Arasaka and Militech into direct conflict.

February 22nd, 2041

There is a forced cease fire between the two warring corporations. Both are under threat of takeover by various governments who are tired of dealing with the collateral damage.

February 23rd – February 26th, 2041

Tensions run high, but there is no further bloodshed. A war of words has begun however, between Arasaka and Militech.

February 27th, 2041

A peace treaty is signed by OTEC and CINO. An agreement established as to how the remaining IHAG assets and stock will be handled. The corporate war is over, at least for OTEC and CINO

February 28th – March 5th, 2041

Everything seems quiet for a change. The team decides to expand its presence in the entertainment industry by opening a second Golden Saloon, although this one is to be called the Platinum Saloon. The name reflects the fact that it is closer to downtown and will be marketed toward a higher end clientele then the Golden Saloon.

March 6th, 2041

A senior Militech executive is found dead in his office. There is no determinable cause of death.

March 7th, 2041

There is a massive data raid on Militech’s primary data fortress. Militech is not saying much, but word is it was a massive data loss. RRiptide talks to Colin Fisk. Collin tells him that they have nothing concrete, but the executive who died was jacked into his terminal at the time of his death. A day later, Militech’s data fortress is breached using all of the executive’s access codes. Militech intel officers are talking about a possible new form of the Soul Killer virus, that Arasaka had used back in the early 2030s.

Collin also warns Riptide, that information on him and his team was included in that data breach.

March 8th – March 13th, 2041

Again, things continue to be quiet. Word on the street though continues to be that a corporate war between Arasaka and Militech is coming. Since these two corporations have some of the largest standing armies in the world with the most advanced gear and weapons, the question is, who will stop them?

March 14th – 27th, 2041

Chilean forces harass Arasaka holdings throughout South America. It’s clearly a coordinated effort to shut down Arasaka operations in that region.

March 28th, 2041

Gang war erupts in Washington DC as the Iron Sights, a once Arasaka ally has turned on them.

March 29th – April 4th, 2041

Tensions continue to rise between Arasaka and Militech with accusations flying in both directions regarding various events and incidents.

April 5th, 2041

Arasaka claims it has proof that both the Chilean incident and the Iron Sites uprising were caused by Militech. In retaliation, Arasaka bombs several Militech field offices in South America.

The new corporate war has begun.

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.

July 6th – September 8th, 2040

The team gets roughly two months of peace and quiet between jobs. It gives them plenty of time to work on their personal objectives as well as improve their towing and salvage business. But there is such a thing as too much quiet, and the itch for some action begins to grow.

Riptide checks in with Colin Fisk to see how things are going with Harvis Renaldo. Collin says that he has run into a bit of an issue as Mr. Renaldo seems to have disappeared.

SHelios takes to regularly watching the news and he hears about the Mountaineers nomad clan has taken over a neighborhood in Heywood, much to the chagrin of EBM, the corporation that owns the neighborhood. Having run with those nomads a few years back, Helios considers paying them a visit,

September 9th, 2040

Riptide gets a visit from a man named Klaus who is looking for some assistance on a job. He has an asset retrieval job, and the team comes highly recommended. They agree to meet later that day with the rest of the team.

A few hours later, Klaus meets with the whole team, except Saito, who had to go to Los Angeles for reasons unknown. Klaus explains that he is looking to retrieve some black mail materials for his client, materials that are currently in the hands of the North American President of Tsunami Arms. They are in a safe in his office, which is located on a large, heavily guarded campus just outside the city.

Klaus has managed to secure an AV-8, and has had it painted to look like Tsunami Arms security. More impressive, he has the identity codes that will allow him to fly onto their property without getting shot down.

His plan is to fly the team to the office, drop them off and then leave as not to draw suspicion. The team goes in, secures the materials, and then signals him to return. He flies in, picks them up, and everyone gets paid. The team’s share of this little adventure is $50,000. They have to act in two days, otherwise Klaus’ ID codes for the AV-8 expire. Zen points out that they need to be careful as this reminds her too much of the Kalnier theft.

They agree to meet in two days at the old Brock Facility, an abandoned facility owned by DMS where Klaus has the AV stored. They then go their separate ways.

September 10th, 2040

The following day, the team begins immediately doing some research and recon. They are able to get blue prints for the office. They learn that there are numerous armed guards at the office, plus armed guards patrolling the campus. A response team is also on the campus on standby, and can be on site anywhere on the property in two minutes. There is at least one other armed AV-8 somewhere on the grounds.

The access control in the office building uses thumb print scanners. They manage to acquire a printer that can forge thumb prints. They pay Mouse to hack the Tsunami Arms network, where he is able to download copies of the thumb print records, allowing them to forge prints that give them full access to the building.

Riptide gets his hands on some uniforms and Ripper buys lots of explosives and remote detonators. They also get their hands on an expensive but handy signal jammer, which will hopefully keep the armed cavalry from showing up.

September 11th, 2040

The next morning, they have a plan in place and the equipment they need to pull it off. But then the phone rings. Riptide gets a call from a past client, Nasami Namura, the Yakuza man who hired them to retrieve a stolen horse back in April, though they never met him or even knew he was the one that hired them. The most memorable thing about that mission was Wilbur, the retired edgerunner, telling them to get out of the business before they have too many enemies haunting them. He told them this right before taking a bullet to the head from one of his old enemies.

In the early afternoon, Riptide heads over to Warehouse 123. This time there is no two-way mirrors, or go between spokesmen. He speak directly with Namura who points out that due to the success of their last mission, he now finds himself assigned to Night City indefinitely, rather than getting to return to Tokyo as he had hoped.

None the less, he was happy with the work the team did for him last time, so he has a new job for them. He wants them to steal a vinyl record collection, and they need to do it this evening. Riptide is about to decline when Namura points out that the collection is held by Ricardo Alament, the North American President of Tsunami Arms.

Riptide has been in the game far too long to believe in such coincidences, and demands to know what is up. Namura explains that he has tried to purchase the collection from Alament on several occasions, but has been rejected every time. He has since managed to get a man on the inside of the operation, to get some sort of leverage.

That man informed him early this morning that Tsunami Arms plans to be raided this evening and are setting a trap. The team member’s names were mentioned. It seems that someone has spilled the beans. He tells Riptide that rather than abort the mission, which would be the sane thing to do, they could use this fore knowledge to their advantage allowing them to complete their original mission plus get Namura his record collection, for which he will pay $100,000.

Riptide meets with the others and gives them the news. They call Klaus and insist that he meets with them. An hour later, they meet at the Golden Saloon.

Klaus denies their accusations and insists that he has told no one about the job. He tells them that is client is Sarah Lexington, a popular socialite. She dated Alament briefly and she wants some embarrassing photos back. They asked him about how he found the team, and Klaus says that Lexington’s body guard used to be an edgerunner and new the team by reputation and suggested them.

They did some background checking, and sure enough, Alament did date Lexington for a while. He was known to socialize with a number of starlets, including Shauni Kalnier, the Braindance star whose career was recently ruined.

So they still do not know how Tsunami Arms knew they were coming, but the extra pay day is too much to pass up. Plus, they realize they only have to make some small modifications to their plans in order to make them fit the new circumstances.

At 7:30 pm, a couple hours earlier than originally planned, they meet at the old Brock Facility and load their gear into the AV-8. The vector thrust jet launches into the air and flies the 10 minute journey to the Tsunami Arms facility.

The AV-8 slowly flies over the property, its ID code keeping it from being greeted by surface-to-air missiles. As they fly over a couple of the manufacturing buildings, Ripper drops a couple of large satchel charges onto the roofs.

The AV-8 then lands in front of the office building. The new plan calls for Klaus to remain parked there until they are ready to leave, something he is not happy about but has agreed to.

The team disembarks in their security uniforms, uniforms that have a lot less armor protection than the kind of body armor they are used to wearing on this kind of mission. They bring with them a wheeled cart to carry some of their gear, including the jammer, which they switch on.

They stroll into the office building and are greeted by a couple of security guards. Riptide explains that they are there to reinforce security for the raid that is supposed to happen later tonight. They security guards know nothing about it and gripe about being the last to be told anything.

The team uses the forged fingerprints to gain access to the upper level. They emerge from the elevator to see several offices. Ripper’s thermo-imaging in his cyber-eyes reveals about a dozen individuals waiting in one of the VP offices. They decide to not go to that one.

They go to the President’s office. They carefully inspect the door and see that it has a screamer alarm attached to it, but has an old fashioned key lock. After some meticulous work, they are able to bypass the screamer alarm and pick the lock. They enter the office and find the wall safe. Ripper has a safe cracking skill chip installed that feeds him the information he needs to defeat the safe lock. The safe door is opened and inside is an envelope.

They open the envelope and expect to see provocative pictures of Sarah Lexington. Instead there are several photos of Harvis Renaldo, who appears to have been beaten to death. They are not sure what to make of this development other than it explains how Tsunami got their street names.

While Helios and Riptide monitor the office with the people inside, Ripper and Zen roll the cart into the VIP lounge and begin loading record albums onto the cart.

The door to the office with the men inside suddenly swings open, revealing 10 security men. In the back are two other individuals, a male they do not recognize, but also a female that Riptide recognizes as Shauni Kalnier.

In that instant, it all comes together. They had ruined her career when Harvis Renaldo hired them to steal her master tapes from DMS. Ricardo Alament was a known friend of Kalnier’s. The people who hired Klaus pointed him in the team’s direction. The facility that Klaus parked his AV-8, which he somehow got the Tsunami codes for, was a DMS facility. As Zen had pointed out, this mission objective was similar to the Kalnier theft.

Tsunami Arms knew they were coming not because someone had leaked the plan. This was the plan all along. Alament was helping Kalnier get some payback for what they did to her.

This revelation doesn’t stop Riptide and Helios from acting as planned and throwing several flash bang grenades into the room. While everyone in the room stumbles about dazed, Riptide and Helios use needle guns armed with sleep drugs to sedate everyone.

Then they hear the unmistakable sound of the AV-8 taking off. This is then followed by the sound of the 14mm cannon roaring to life. They look out the window and see multiple squads of men trying to approach the building, but Klaus is keeping them pinned down.

Zen and Ripper emerge with the cart full of albums. They grab Shauni Kalnier and decide to keep her as a hostage. They head back down the elevator, and are immediately shot at by the two first floor guards. They outnumber the security men and easily drive them back.

Ripper turns off the signal jammer and uses his remote detonator to set off the charges on the manufacturing buildings. That should keep some pressure off of them for a while.

Suddenly, the AV-8 drops quickly and hits the ground. Not sure what has happened, the team quickly runs from the building to the AV, dodging fire from the security teams. They quickly load up into the AV. Helios checks the cockpit and finds Klaus dead with 3rd degree burns on his hands and arms.

Helios pulls the body out of the AV and jumps into the pilot seat. He is glad he had thought to buy an AV piloting skill chip just in case this sort of thing happened. He is about to take off when suddenly a massive jolt of electricity rips its way through Helios. The skin on his hands and arms quickly blister and burn away. The jolt only lasts a couple of seconds, but it leaves Helios unconscious, his hands and arms burned black. He is lucky to be alive at all.

They pull Helios’ smoking body into the back of the AV, administering what first aid they can to keep him alive. As the security teams begin to move in they quickly consider their options.

Inspecting the pilot’s seat, they can see the controls are rigged to deliver the electrical shock. They can see no physical trigger. Perhaps it is triggered remotely. As this occurs to them, they remember that the AV went down right after Ripper turned off the signal jammer. They quickly turn it back on.

Zen pulls the AV pilot chip from Helios’ chip reader and plugs it into her own. She then sits in the pilot’s seat, bracing herself for a possible lethal shock, but none comes. Using a piloting chip she has not had time to acclimate to, using controls she has not had a chance to familiarize herself with, she begins to pilot a vehicle that was damaged in the fall. Despite all of this, she gets the AV off of the ground and pointed in the right direction.

They begin to fly way, and begin to feel a sense of relief. It is short lived however when warning sirens begin to go off. Looking around they see another AV-8 closing in. Ripper climbs into the gunner’s seat, and takes control of the cannon and grenade launchers.

A dog fight ensues, but the other AV-8 pilot clearly has the advantage. The team’s AV takes multiple cannon hits while Ripper is unable to get a bead on their opponent as the other AV pilot knows how to stay in their blind spots.

They almost make it to the suburb of Heywood when the AV takes a crippling hit, and Zen is forced to make a crash landing. The other AV hovers about getting ready to make the killing blow.

Realizing that they are just outside of Heywood, they get an idea. They disable the shock device and turn the jammer off. Ripper gets on the radio and informs the other AV that they have Shauni Kalnier on board. This has the desired effect, and the AV gives them some space.

At the same time, Riptide goes to work on his phone. While he never ran with the Mountaineers like Helios did, he did get to know some of them during his days in Las Vegas. He begins to work some old contacts.

The other AV continues to hover outside. The team is sure that more Tsunami security is on the way. Riptide gets a call from a Mountaineer in Heywood. He tells them that several nomads are on their way and will be there in a few minutes to pick them up. They have to hurry though as word has already reached the media that Shauni Kalnier is being held hostage and the cops and media are on their way as well.

They let Shauni know that they are going to release her and if she even thinks about coming after them again, they will not hesitate to flat line her. The nomads arrive in large numbers right before the media gets there as well. Mass chaos ensues.

When the dust settles, Shauni has been rescued and the team finds themselves in Heywood. They activate Helios’ trauma card and wait for an ambulance AV to arrive and take them back to Night City.

Helios is in the hospital, minus two arms. The team collects their bounty for the record collection. They barely survived what could have been a total disaster. Old Wilbur’s warning about getting out before they have too many enemies seems more poignant then ever.

July 4th, 2040

It’s barely been a week since the team’s last job when Zen gets a call from a technician at Trauma Team. He tells her they have the body of one of their customers that they were unable to save. The account is under an assumed name so they can’t identify her. They found a burner cell phone on her that has two names in the speed dial. The first had no answer and the second one is what got them in contact with her.

Zen heads down to the Trauma Team center and sees the body. To her shock, it belongs to Roxie. The body is badly burned and riddled with shrapnel. It looks like the work of a well-made IED.

Zen asks where they recovered the body and she is told is was found near the corner of 34th Ave and 230th St, which is right in the heart of the worst part of the Combat Zone. Roxie’s Trauma team card had been automatically activated, but by the time the team got there, she was already dead. There were no other bodies present.

Zen informs the others. Their first suspicion is that this is retaliation for the tech they stole from Block One, which was a job they got through Roxie. They try calling Krissy, but get no response.

The team heads over to Roxie and Krissy’s place at the Mallplex. They break-in and do a quick search. They learn that Roxie and Krissy apparently left no traces of their activities lying around the apartment. They find a wall safe and pull it out of the wall.

Remembering that the girls kept their gear in a custom built armored van, they head down to the parking garage. All they find however, is an empty parking space.

Back at the shop, they torch the safe. Inside, they find $15,000 in cash, some passports and a contact list. Nothing in there tells them about the girl’s last job.

Riptide works his contacts and hears that the girls were doing a job for a man named Rico Diamonds, a pimp turned corporate fixer. He must be small time, because little else is known about him other than he has diamond studded teeth. They do figure out that other number on Roxie’s speed dial belongs to this Rico.

That night the team heads to the Forlorn Hope and tells the regulars the news. They spend the rest of the night, drinking, telling stories, and toasting their fallen friend.

July 5th, 2040

With Mouse’s help, they prepare to triangulate and trace Rico’s cell phone. Zen places a call and does her best impression of Roxie. It may not be good enough to take on the road, but it’s good enough to fool Rico.

He is quite upset because he has just learned that the girls did not deliver the brief case he was paying them to deliver. Zen tells him that something has gone wrong and that they need to meet. Rico agrees and tells them to meet him at the usual place. He won’t say what that place is and they can’t ask him. But when he hangs up, they turn to Mouse who confirms Rico’s location as Medina, a hookah club over on the west side.

The team drives over to the Medina. Rico isn’t hard to spot as he is the only guy in the club with diamond studded teeth. They approach him and reveal that it was actually Zen that he had talked to earlier.

Once the usually posturing is out of the way, they explain that Roxie was found dead, and that she was a friend. Since she was doing a job for Rico, it might be mutually beneficial to find out what happened.

Rico tells them that he paid the girls to drop a brief case off at an address right near where she was found. What was in the case, he did not know, and the girls did not ask either. He even agrees to pay the team $30,000 to recover the case and complete the delivery. The recipient of the case is a Nanotech Industries lab operating clandestinely in the Combat Zone.

After the meeting with Rico, they do a little research on the part of the combat zone that the lab is located in. They find out it is currently a warzone. Two gangs, the Klash and the Razor Boys are in an all-out battle for territory.

July 5th, 2040

In the morning, they get into their van and head deep into the Combat Zone. There area they are heading into has been clearly ravaged by drugs. Most business are closed, homeless and strung-out individuals litter the sidewalks.

They come across Roxie and Krissy’s armored van parked on the curb. They get out and investigate. It looks like several people have tried to get into the van, but the armor and security system have held.

As they check out the van, they notice that they have drawn the attention of several Razor Boys. The gangers tell them that the van was left in their territory, so it belongs to them. The team tries to negotiate for the return of the van, but the Boys say that only their leader Ice can make such a deal and he isn’t seeing visitors right now.

Just then a car that had been slowly coasting a couple of blocks away begins to speed up. Several gang members recognize what is about to happen and hit the dirt.

Sub-machine gun fire bursts from inside the car, hitting several of the slower Boys. Zen empties a magazine into the car Saito calmly grabs his rifle out of the van and snipes the driver of the vehicle, causing it to swerve and hit a telephone pole. The Razor Boys run up and fire enough lead into the vehicle to ensure that there are no survivors. As they tend to their dead and wounded, the Razor Boys agree to take the team to see Ice.

They are taken a couple of blocks south into a warehouse where they meet Ice. He agrees to turn over the van for $5,000. Helios surprises everyone by pulling out a large wad of cash and counting out $5,000. The Boys clearly aren’t sure what to make of a guy that would carry that kind of cash into the Combat Zone.

The team makes arrangements to get the van towed back to their salvage shop. Hazard pay bonuses are offered in order to get anyone to come this far into the Zone. Riptide calls Mouse and asks him to do some digging and see what he can find out about Roxie and Krissy as of late.

They then talk to Ice about Roxie and Krissy. He tells them that they had heard an explosion in an alley a couple blocks east of here, but when they got there, no one was around. He believes that it is the work of The Dragon, a mysterious vigilante who operates in these parts. Rumor is that The Dragon is a former Razor Boy who now has it in for all gangers. Word has it that he hangs out at a drug den called the Shooting Gallery, which is located inside Klash territory.

They next decide to head over to where the incident took place. Once there, they begin to inspect the damage. They determine that someone set up multiple anti-personnel explosives in the alley. Anyone caught in the middle of that blast was likely shredded pretty badly. The hopes of find Krissy alive are suddenly diminished.

Saito climbs a pipe attached to one of the buildings to get a bird’s eye view. While up there, he spots a blood trail from that very same pipe to the middle of the roof, where it disappears. Someone was wounded and either climbed or was carried up to the roof, where they disappeared from that point.

Once back on the ground, he and Zen head into the narrow ally off shoot and make their way to its end. There they find a non-descript steel door. They knock, and a minute later someone opens the view window and asks what they want. As suspected, this is the Nanotech lab. Once they establish why they are there, the man behind the door states that he is still waiting for his package as it was never delivered. He had heard the explosion as well and he sent some men to investigate. They found no bodies, but did not search long as the Razor Boys were starting to show up.

They return to Roxie and Krissy’s van to oversee it being hoisted on a truck to be towed out of the Combat Zone. It was now 6:00 PM, which means they still have a couple hours of daylight left.

They load into their own van and head north into Clash territory. They soon find the Shooting Gallery. Helios stays with the vehicle as the other head in. The scene inside the drug den looks an awful lot like the scene outside, except that all of the people laying around strung out look a lot more comfortable.

They inquire as to who is in charge and end up talking to a guy named Ace. He says that contrary to what they may have heard, The Dragon doesn’t hang out here. In fact, he is pretty sure the Dragon is a myth. He heard that the Dragon is supposedly Japanese, an ex-yakuza guy who is taking out anyone who is connected with that organization.

They ask him what the popular drug is in the neighborhood. He tells them that it is Crystal Lace. It’s distributed by the Jamaicans, who operate somewhere southeast of here. There have been some synthetic drugs showing up as of late, but he doesn’t know where it is coming from.

Mouse gives Riptide a call with some information. Krissy’s Trauma Team account was more than 10 days past due, so her account was suspended. That means that even if she was there and dying right alongside Roxie, they would not have picked her up.

They next head southeast to find the Jamaicans. They find two men guarding an ally who seem to fit the profile. These guys look like “shoot first, say hi later” types, so they approach very carefully. Things are quite tense at first, and it seems like bullets could start flying at any second, but eventually the team is able to talk their way into seeing the gang’s leader, Ras.

They are taken into the back alley and through a loading dock door into what is clearly a drug lab. Ras has little patience for them but is eventually convinced that it is in his best interest if the team is able to track down The Dragon. Ras says that he heard that the Dragon is a Hispanic man, a retired Federali. He hangs out at a club called Apocalypse, but they have never been able to catch him there.

The team then heads off to the Apocalypse. They pay the $10 a head cover charge and head on in. On stage a band is playing something that might be called music in the loosest sense of the word. The “singer” is howling out lyrics between bouts of spitting on fans and pissing on the stage.

They inquire as to who is in charge and they are told it’s a man named CC, who not only owns the club but also happens to be the guy relieving himself on stage. Reluctantly, they ask to speak with him.

A short time later, CC arrives at their table wearing only a spike jock strap. He asks if they enjoyed his performance which he calls “Reality Sucks”. They lie and say it wasn’t completely horrible.

CC tells them that The Dragon is a Corp from uptown. A real Bruce Wayne type who likes to come into the slums and play super hero. He’s been at it for two years now, taking out drug dealers with a vengeance. If they want to find him, they should check out a brothel on the west end of the neighborhood called Tokyo Rose’s.

It’s starting to get dark out as the team once again follows another lead on The Dragon. Tokyo Rose’s ends up being the nicest place they have been to today, though the bar has been set pretty low. It clearly caters to clientele who live no where’s near here. The décor is nice, the women beautiful, and the muscle well trained.

They speak to Tokyo Rose herself, a short elderly Japanese woman. She tells them that she heard that The Dragon is a woman who is on a crusade to destroy the drug trade in this area. Unlike everyone else they have spoken to, Rose has a positive opinion of the Dragon. Of course, she is also the only person they have spoken to who hasn’t directly contributed to the drug problem. She tells them to seek out a fence name Le Fez. The Dragon uses him to sell the loot she gets off of dead gangers.

Now having heard five different versions of who the Dragon is and four different places where he or she supposedly hangs out, the team sets out once again. The sun is now down and they have reached the time of day where anyone in their right mind would have headed back home. But Rose told them where to find Le Fez, so off they go.

They make their way over several blocks. The destitute daylight denizens begin to give over to more nefarious nighttime nasties who watch the team from dark alleys like wolves in the woods. They find themselves standing outside another alley door. This one is heavily reinforced with a suite of cameras and sensors monitoring it. A crackly voice comes over an intercom and asks them what they want. They plead their case and the door opens with the sound of heavy motorized bolts retracting.

They are greeted by a seven-foot tall full-conversion cyborg. He speaks in the same crackly voice they heard over the intercom, apparently a glitch in his voice modulator. He confirms Tokyo Rose’s story that he helps fence the items that the Dragon takes from her victims. He gives them the sixth version of the Dragon, stating that she is a Japanese woman, roughly 5’10’ with an athletic build.

She was most recently at his shop the other night looking to sell a secured brief case. He was able to get the case open and found it full of materials for manufacturing synthetic drugs. Le Fez does not deal in narcotics, so he refused to purchase them from her. He instead sent her to a man known as The Doctor, who may have an interest in purchasing the drugs.

Just them, Helios radios that a group of Klash gangers are starting to congregate outside and they are armed and on the hunt. Le Fez offers the team a combo deal. He will tell them how to find The Doctor and allow them to make use of his personal bolt hole, all for the low price of $5,000. It’s a ridiculous price to pay, but they don’t feel much like arguing.

So money and information are exchanged. Le Fez leads them to the back of his shop where he shows them a tunnel leading out on the other side of the block. Helios drives around to meet up with them, and they head for yet another destination.

Clusters of gangers are beginning to walk the streets. The team is forced to zig-zag around before reaching their destination.

The Doctor lives on the third floor of a relatively intact apartment building. He lets them in and seems friendly enough. Looking about, they quickly realize he is a body-scrapper. He takes the dying and freshly dead and harvests their organs for sale on the black market.

They ask about the brief case. He tells them that a Japanese women showed up the other night with the brief case and a critically wounded woman. The case contained a chemical catalyst commonly used in the production of synthetic narcotics. He bought the case from the woman for $20,000, and they sold the contents to some uptown contacts for $75,000. As to the wounded women, she is still in the back.

They run to the back room and find Krissy on a table on life support. She is missing a leg and an arm and much of her face and torso is covered in blood soaked bandages. The Doctor says he was going to give it another couple of days before he started scrapping her for parts. They contact Mouse to hack Trauma Team and reinstate her account. Once completed he would activate her card and a rescue unit would be on its way.

With that taken care of, the subject again returns to The Dragon. The Doctor explains that she can be found at Tokyo Rose’s. They tell him that they have already looked under that rock, but he assures them that she is there. Rose herself knows this.

Once more, the team is back on the streets. As they head back to Tokyo Rose’s, they can hear the sound of the approaching Trauma Team AV.

Back at the brothel, they tell Rose that they want to see the Dragon, and this time they are not taking “no” for an answer. She gives in and directs them to a door in the back. The door opens into an alley. Cautiously, the team moves toward the other end.

A woman awaits them on the other end. The alley is covered in shadow but they recognize her from Le Fez’s description. She readily admits to laying the trap and detonating the explosives. She knows they have been here in the Zone all day and have seen first had what the drug trade has done to this neighborhood and the people who live in it. She finally decided to take a stand. She is the guardian of this neighborhood.

Zen points out that Roxie and Krissy were not drug dealers, but simply doing a delivery job. The Dragon dismisses this. She knows the team are edgerunners, just like the two ladies were. She admonishes them for thinking that a “no questions asked” policy somehow washes their hands clean of all the harm their work does. Maybe they don’t harm the innocent themselves, but they are fools if they think the work they do for others doesn’t lead to the innocent being harmed.

The team suddenly find themselves in a moral quandary. They came here hell bent for revenge, but the truth of the matter is that she is one of the good guys. They are the ones working for the dark element of society. Killing her would be doing a favor for the drug pushers who are destroying lives.

They decide to leave without killing her. They found Krissy, and she is on her way to get real medical help. The briefcase has already been sold so there iss nothing to be gained there. That’s the life of an edgerunner: sometimes the only thing you gain is to not lose any more than you already have.

So they decide to call it a day and head for home, but not before one slight detour. They swing by the Jamaican’s HQ and let them know that they can find The Dragon behind Tokyo Rose’s. They don’t like the Jamaicans any more than they like The Dragon, but sometimes you just have to let the Combat Zone sort itself out.

The team gets about a month of downtime before their next opportunity comes along. They begin to look at turning their salvage business from a side source of income into a legitimate business. The first step is to move the operation out of the Combat Zone. It turns out that such a move will cost more money than they now have. If only there was a way to make some quick cash.

February 28th, 2039

Zen gets a call from someone who knows her real name. He says his name is Mark Vincent, and his manner of speaking has cop written all over it. He wants to meet her team. She agrees to meet with him the next day at the Forlorn Hope.

She checks with Infocomp to see what they know about any federal agents named Mark Vincent. If he is who he says he is, he is DEA.

March 1st, 2039

Zen, Saito, Helios, and Riptide meet at the Forlorn Hope. There they meet with Mark Vincent. He tells them that Diego Entrada has shutdown his operation in Columbia, and they are not sure where he has gone off to. The search is complicated by the fact that no one really knows what he looks like.

The DEA does know that he has begun shipping his new drug Blue Glass to the U.S. A shipment showed up in Las Vegas and is currently under the control of a nomad named Raze. Raze is looking for a distributor.

Vincent wants them to go to Las Vegas and try to become Raze’s distributor with the goal of winning his trust and eventually tracing the drugs back to Diego Entrada. The job doesn’t pay anything, but he will give them $50,000 to make the purchase from Raze, and what ever they profit from the sales they can keep. Also, he seems to know about their history with Entrada and figures they would like the opportunity for revenge.

They agree to take the job. Raze is currently planning to use the James Gang, a Las Vegas Booster Gang as his distributor. The sale goes down in two days.

The team spends the rest of the day making arrangements to be gone for potentially several weeks. Mouse is able to acquire a 6-month lease on a warehouse facility in Vegas that they will be able to use as a headquarters. Infocomp is none too happy and tells Zen if she leaves, not to bother coming back.

March 2nd, 2039

The team spends the better part of the day driving through the desert to Las Vegas. They arrive at their warehouse, and set up operations there.

Zen and Riptide hit the streets. Riptide reestablishes contact with some of his old compatriots from back when he called Vegas home. They are able to learn that the James Gang hangs at a bar called Ace in the Hole. They also learn that the gang’s number one rival is a local chapter of the Blood Razors.

Later that evening, they head to the Ace in the Hole. The place is packed with lowlifes and off duty cops. The James Gang members are easy to spot in their cowboy hats and dusters. The team sits near them, but does not draw their attention.

A short time later, a large man in biker gear shows up. He goes to the James Gang table and begins talking to them. The team hears him referred to as Raze. After several minutes and a few drinks, Raze heads out the door. Riptide and Zen follow.

Outside the bar, Riptide introduces himself. He explains that he has a group that would like to be the distributor for the drug. Raze asks how he knows about it but Riptide manages to dodge the issue. Instead, Raze gives him an invite to bid for the job. The meet is tomorrow at the old army depot at high noon.

March 3rd, 2039

Early before sunrise, Saito heads out to the army depot and checks it out. It contains four large warehouses and eight two-story buildings all surrounded by a double layer of fence. The buildings are all empty and the fence has several large gaps in it. He scopes out a rock ridge about a quarter mile away, and then returns to the team’s HQ.

About 10:00 AM, Saito returns to his selected spot and conceals himself and his rifle with a camo-tarp. The others arrive at 11:00 to find the depot crawling with nomads. They are allowed in and guided to one of the warehouses, where they are left to wait.

At 11:45 the James Gang arrives. Not surprisingly, they are very unhappy about the unannounced competition. Too bad for them they are outnumbered about 10 to 1 by nomads, so their protests remain strictly verbal.

Raze explains that the bid today is not just for this one 50 Kilo shipment of Blue Ice, but if the winner is successful in selling the first batch, they can be the primary distributor ongoing. He also states one important stipulation. The drug cannot be sold outside of Las Vegas.

The bidding then begins at $20,000, the James Gang original offer. If goes back and forth with the James Gangers getting more upset every time Riptide raises the stakes. Eventually the James Gang is forced to concede when Riptide offers to pay $42,500 for the shipment, more that 80% of its estimated street value.

The James Gang storm off in a huff. They vow that this is not over. Meanwhile, the nomads help load the 50 Kilos of Blue Glass into the back of the team’s van. The team then heads back toward Vegas.

They don’t get very far when three dune buggies loaded with James Gangers come up behind them and open fire. Luckily the van they are using is the armored tactical van than they had liberated from Militech. The gangers open fire, and despite using armor piercing rounds, the rear armor of the van holds. It is getting chewed up though, and eventually a couple of rounds penetrate, nearly hitting Zen who is sitting with their cargo.

Helios is doing his best to keep his distance, but even the van’s supercharged engine has trouble staying ahead of the dune buggies, which are designed for this kind of terrain. But while he swerves back and forth, giving Riptide chances to take shots from the passenger side window, Helios is slowly circling back towards where Saito is positioned.

Once they get to within about three-quarters of a mile, Saito opens fire with his heavy rifle. The .50 caliber electro-thermo rounds easily blow through the light armor of the dune buggies and disable them. With that threat eliminated, they all return back to their warehouse.

As soon as they get back they began planning their next move. Riptide still has the connections in the city to plan a rave, the ideal place for the introduction of a new drug. They plan it for the 6th.

March 4th, 2039

They begin the process of finding a place, acquiring food, a DJ, alcohol and security. Just in case the James Gang decides to crash the party, Riptide decides to hire the Blood Razors as security. He also finds an old friend of his who is a supplier for some of the local social elites. He gives him 100 grams to distribute for free.

March 5th, 2039

Eventually, they have their place set up. It has a capacity to hold 1,000 people and it costs them $8,500 in upfront expenses to get it set up. They hope to get about 750 people to actually show in order to cover their costs.

March 6th, 2039

The rave goes off without a hitch, but only 600 people show. At the end of the night, once door fees are added up as well as their share of the drink sales, they actually profit $500. Plus they make an additional $800 selling 800 grams of the drug. That is a lot less then they were hoping to move that night, but it is a start.

March 7th, 2039

They begin looking at hosting another party, but going bigger this time. They find a facility that holds 5,000 people, but they realize that they don’t have the funds to set up something that big. Instead they plan for something about twice the size of their first event.

Riptide checks in with his old buddy. His friend says the Blue Glass is a hit with the swells, and he figures he can move about 100 grams a day. He wants 30%, which means $70 going back to the team. Its not a lot either, but it’s a steady sales and revenue stream that’s a good point to build off of.

March 8th, 2039

It turns out that Jarvic is in town. He is also in Las Vegas looking to move some of his Super Fly. He hears about a big rave coming up and decides that it would be a good place to dump some product. He begins to ask around to find out where and when it’s going to take place. In the process of doing so he finds himself face-to-face with Helios. Helios not only tells them where the rave is, but also invites him back to the warehouse to meet with the rest of the gang.

There he meets with Riptide and convinces Riptide to buy some of his stock. He also decides to give away quite a bit of it for free at the rave in order to generate some interest. The team hopes that that added draw should bring in more people although they are concerned that it may dilute their own sales.

March 9, 2039

The next party draws a bigger audience. They get about 1600 people to show. They are able to move about 3200 grams of the drug.

March 10 – March 11, 2039

They spend the next couple of days recruiting more individuals to help move the drug. They also slowly begin to expand their network of dealers.

March 12, 2039

They begin to plan their next rave. This time they have enough money to shoot for a 5000 person venue. They do get some bad news though as one of Riptide’s dealers is apparently shot and killed. The perpetrator is unknown.

March 13 – March 14, 2039

Riptide adds two more dealers to his network.

March 15, 2039

Another one of Riptide’s dealers is killed. This time however they know that the hit was conducted by the James Gang.

March 16, 2039

They find out that the James gang hangs out in the old subway system. Saito tracks down one of the subway entrances that the gang uses. After waiting patiently for several hours Saito snipes two members of the gang as they emerge.

March 17, 2039

Their third rave takes place today. They get over 6000 people to show up. Unfortunately the venue only holds 5000 so they are forced to turn some people away. They do issue coupons to those that were turned away to give them priority access to the next event. They move almost twice as much product as last time.

March 18, 2039

Three of their dealers get arrested and Riptide has to bail them out.

March 19, 2039

The team now has 10 dealers working for them. Saito tracks down one of the teams of the James gang who were on the street dealing their own product. He waits for an opportune moment with his sniper rifle and picks off one of the members mid-transaction.

March 20, 2039

An uneventful day.

March 21, 2039

They continue to expand their network of dealers. They also hear on the news today of a missile apparently being launched into the 35th floor of the Biotechnica building. They do a little digging and learn that the office the missile was targeted at belongs to a man named Dr. Thomas Moore. The missile was fired from the parking lot on the ground floor. A witness claims that the person firing the missile appeared to be of South American dissent.

March 22, 2039

They now have a team of 12 dealers working for them. They contact Mouse to search out who Dr. Thomas Moore is. He calls them back a short time later and says that Dr. Thomas Moore is part of Biotechnica’s bio-weapons division. Riptide contacts Tobias Luna in regards the situation. Tobias indicates that he will find out what Riptide wants to know, but that Riptide is going to owe him a favor in exchange. Riptide is fully aware that Tobias will cash in on that favor someday but agrees to the deal.

Riptide also decides to hit streets to find out what the James Gang’s reaction is to the recent deaths of their members. He learns of their preparing to go to war with someone. He also learns that apparently the gang has a corporate sponsor that will be sending in outside support.

The team decides to kidnap a member of the James Gang and find out exactly what they are up to. They go to the Ace in the Hole and wait for a few members of the gang to leave. As always members of the James gang seem to travel in threes. This particular group of three pops into their dune buggy and begins to drive away. The team, using their Militech van, begin to follow. But moments later they find out that they themselves are being followed by another van. Saito, from several blocks, away opens fire with his sniper rifle disabling the pursuing van. Moments later the van doors open up as several Colombians pile out and begin to open fire on the team’s van. One of them uses a shoulder-mounted missile launcher, but thanks to the Helios’ driving, the team’s able to avoid the incoming artillery. Saito then opens fire on the Colombians forcing them to scatter.

The dune buggy and the team’s van race through the streets of Las Vegas, exchanging gunfire. Eventually the dune buggy is disabled. One of the James Gang members is killed by the gunfire. Another is killed when Helios rams the van into the dune buggy causing it to roll over one of the gang members. The third is knocked unconscious and the team members drag him into the back of their van.

The team then drives out to the old abandoned Army depot. There they begin to interrogate their prisoner. They learn that they are the ones of the James Gang plans to go to war with. They’ve got something big planned but the prisoner doesn’t know what that is. The team assumes that the James Gang intends to attack on their next rave. They also learn that the gang’s corporate sponsor has called in a large number of Colombians to help out. Those Colombians are currently holed up at the old abandoned Air Force proving grounds. The corporate sponsor is Diverse Media Systems. They have him draw a map of the subway system including any traps or ambush points that the James gang has set up.

March 23, 2039

In the news today is a story about a man who went crazy in one of the casinos. When he finally collapsed and died, witnesses say he had a strange purple substance oozing from his nose. A toxicology report indicates that he was hopped up on Blue Glass.

Riptide gets in touch with Tobias Luna. Tobias indicates that Dr. Thomas Moore was working with the gentleman from DMS, but the deal went drastically south between the two of them. Riptide tells Tobias that it was a group of Colombians who attacked the Biotechnica office. He then tells Tobias where the Colombians are currently hanging out. Tobias lets him know that Biotechnica will deal with the Colombians.

Saito heads out to the Air Force proving grounds and scopes out where the Colombians are. He estimates that there are roughly 50 of them there.

March 24, 2039

Today in the news is a story about a man who went running down the Las Vegas strip completely naked, punching people at random. When he was subdued he was found to be frothing at the mouth with a strange purple foam. A toxicology report is pending, but it is assumed that he was also on Blue Glass.

That afternoon the Air Force grounds are leveled by a Lazarus strike team. From what Saito can tell in his observations, there are no survivors on the Colombian side.

That evening they hold their fourth party. This time they get a full 10,000 people to show up and this time they have a big enough venue that can hold them all. With the Colombian threat neutralized, the rave goes off without a hitch. Between the drug sales and the profits from the venues, this is beginning to turn into a very lucrative gig.

March 25, 2039

They decide to let their prisoner go. They send him off with a message to his gang. He is to tell them that if the gang leaves town, there will be no further incidents. Otherwise, they will continue to suffer at the hands of their new rivals. Apparently, with the complete destruction of the Colombian contingent, the James Gang realizes that they are outmatched. A couple hours later, the team watches as the entire James Gang rolls out of town.

Later today is another news report involving two people this time. As the two of them seem to go crazy begin attacking people at random. Also as before, they have a strange purple substance oozing from their mouth and nose.

The team begins preparing for their next planned event. This time they talk about hosting the event inside the tunnels that have been abandoned by the James Gang.

March 26, 2039

Today in the news, the mayor announces a crackdown on the new menace to the city. He declares that this new menace is Blue Glass.

The team has managed to sell most of the product. Riptide decides to make contact with Raze to obtain some more. Raze indicates that he will need a couple of days, but he will get them another shipment of the product.

March 27, 2039

The mayor’s crackdown on Blue Glass begins. Four of Riptide’s dealers are arrested and put in jail. This time the city is not letting them out on bail.

Riptide gets a call from Raze. Raze says the source is willing to sell them the next 50 kg shipment for only $20,000, but in exchange for a favor. He wants them to kill John Carter, a DMS employee. John Carter works and lives on the 120th floor of the DMS building. As far as anyone knows he never leaves. Riptide accepts the deal.

March 28th, 2039

By this time, their suspicions about what is going on are starting to grow stronger. They decide to send a sample of Blue Glass to Tobias Luna. They give some of the product they have left to Jarvic, who takes it back with him to Night City. Once there, he gives it directly to Tobias.

Wondering why the drug is only being distributed in Las Vegas, they start a rumor that Blue Glass has been showing up in Reno. They pick that city because it’s where the James Gang has migrated.

Riptide contacts Mouse and sees what he can learn about DMS’ activities in Columbia. Mouse says he will see what he can come up with.

March 29th, 2039

In the morning, Riptide gets a call from Mouse. Mouse informs him that for the last few years, a DMS jet has been making regular monthly flights to Columbia, returning a week later. Then, about six months ago, the flights stopped.

The team starts plotting a way to get into the DMS building. Riptide inquires as to what outside vendors conduct business in the DMS building. They get some ideas, but are unsure if this is the best route in.

They decide to try another angle. Since Riptide has a dealer working the upper class clientele, he checks if any of them are DMS employees. Sure enough, one of the Blue Glass users is Bryan Wainright, a host of a local entertainment news show, taped right inside the DMS building. They decide to make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Riptide gets a call from Tobias. Tobias explains that the Blue Glass has been mixed with a Biotechnica bio-weapon. Tobias won’t share any details on the drug, but will say that by all accounts, people should be dropping dead left and right in Las Vegas. It seems the bio-weapon has a 97% lethality rate. There should be a lot more dead people.

Riptide asks what are the other businesses that Biotechnica operates in Las Vegas. Tobias mentions a few, including managing the city’s municipal water supply.

They contact Mouse and ask him to hack the County Coronor’s computers and get the autopsy reports on those that died from Blue Glass. He says he’ll get to work on it.

They then drive out to the city water plant. They can only get so close before they are stopped by security. Its enough to see that Biotechnica runs the security there, and it appears the be the tightest security they have every seen for such a facility.

March 30th, 2039

They get a call from Mouse regarding those who had died from the Blue Glass. It seems that most of the victims were dehydrated, either due to sickness, or excessive alcohol consumption. This confirms the team’s suspicion that Biotechnica is putting something in the water supply that suppresses the bio-weapon.

Shortly thereafter they head out to Bryan’s house. He grants them access to his high-security gated community. He greets them at the door in a bathrobe and invites them into the house. They work on a nice deal giving him some Blue Glass on the cheap.

Afterwards they asked him what he knows about John Carter. He refers to John as the creepy guy on the 123rd floor. Rumor has it the guy lives in the building and never, ever leaves. He doesn’t know if that’s true, but he himself is never seen the guy outside of the building.

He also recognizes Riptide. He recognizes him from the days when he used to play arena football right here in Las Vegas.

They asked him about getting them into the DMS building. Not surprisingly, he’s reluctant to help. However, since his deal hinges upon him helping them, he’s open to suggestions. He says the best way that he could get them in the door, is by giving him an opportunity to interview a celebrity, conducted in the building. They can then come in as part of that person’s entourage.

Riptide had noticed that a buddy of his from his earlier days in Vegas, who was a small time entertainer back then, was on posters and billboards everywhere. Ray Stevenson was his name. Apparently in the time since Riptide was gone, the guy’s become a big deal in Las Vegas. He’s now one of the city’s top entertainers. They decide to go visit Ray Stevenson, and let Riptide catch up on old times.

They are able to meet up with Ray at his penthouse suite in the Sands Hotel. He recognizes Riptide right away, and the two begin to reminisce. He gets Ray to agree to do an interview with Bryan Wainright. This is something that Ray is not particularly excited about, as he sees doing Bryan’s show as slumming it, but anything for an old friend. Ray and Riptide then hit the town for a long night of drinking, partying and debauchery.

March 31st, 2039

The next morning Riptide decides to check in on Tobias. Tobias was supposed to call them regarding information on the Vegas water sample, but they never heard from him. He is unable to reach Tobias however. Tobias’ personal assistant simply says that he is out of town on an important project.

Using Bryan’s access to the Wynn Estates gated community, they head over to Thomas Moore’s house. There they stick it out for the better part of the day until finally Moore comes home.

Once he is inside, the team storms the house. There’s a guard at the door who is easily overtaken. Riptide and Helios charge upstairs and are able to secure the family before they were able to get into a panic room.

Dr. Moore confirms their suspicions. He purchased a large quantity the drug from John Carter at DMS. He then used the drug as a delivery system for sending out a Biotechnica bio-weapon. However the weapon was not what was being tested. Instead they were injecting a chemical into the water supply that could suppress it.

He pointed out the possible tactic of injecting the suppressant into a city’s water supply, while simultaneously getting the drug in the common use with the city’s population. One could then extort the city, threatening to end the water treatments, thereby leading to thousands of deaths.

When asked him why he had a falling out with John Carter, he explained that John Carter did not realize that he intended to test the drug right there in Las Vegas. When John Carter realized what was happening, he attempted to end the deal and get his drugs back. However, thanks to a crack group of edgerunners, hired by his man Raze, Carter’s plans have been foiled and the drug was now in wide use in Las Vegas.

They then asked him why a DMS agent had come to have a pipeline for Blue Glass, a relatively new drug that have been recently created by Diego Entrada. Moore explained that Diego Entrada and John Carter are in fact one and the same person . John Carter used to go back to Columbia about once a month to check his operations there. He would take an AV-4 directly from the roof of the DMS building to the airport and from their fly to Columbia. This is why no one ever saw him come or go from the building. Due to DEA pressure several months ago, Diego was forced to suspend his operations in Columbia. Luckily for him, by this point he had sent a large amount of the new drug into the US. He saw the deal with Thomas Moore is a great way to get it moving quickly.

Riptide then revealed that his team were the ones were selling the drug. He told Dr. Moore that if in the future, he should decide to carry out such an operation; Riptide’s team would be the ones a higher make it happen. Dr. Moore agreed.

The team makes a change of plans. Riptide calls Mark Vincent, the DEA agent who had hired them. He tells Mark they want the DEA to contact Diego Entrada. Let them know that they were on to him and that they were coming to get him. The plan was that the call should flush Diego out of the building. The team decided that it would be much easier to intercept him at the airport when he was fleeing, rather than trying to break into the fortress that was the DMS building.

April 1st, 2039

Early that morning, Riptide contacts Ray. The good news is they no longer need to Ray to do that interview. The bad news was that they need Ray to give them access to the airport. Ray has his own charter jet there. They would use that crews’ credentials to get themselves into the private jet hangers.

Using those credentials, Helios and Zen hid inside the DMS hanger. Meanwhile, Saito and Riptide positioned themselves in another hanger kitty corner from the DMS hanger.

The plan was for the DEA to contact Diego at 4 PM. Everything seemed to go according to plan as around 4:45 several SUVs rolled up to the hanger. However, Diego was not in any of them. Instead the convoy contained only security personnel who began to sweep the area. Helios and Zen manage stay hidden from their prying eyes.

Then several minutes later, two more SUVs roll up. Out steps a man who appeares to be Diego Entrada and his assistant. Saito, takes a shot from his position. The bullet explodes through Diego’s head, killing him instantly.

The security team jumps into action, and immediately begins escorting the assistant back into the vehicle. The urgency with which they were protecting him made the team realize that the man that Saito had shot was a decoy. The assistant was the real Diego Entrada.

Saito ias able to snipe Diego while in the armored vehicle as it is backing out of the hanger. A shot to the gas tank makes sure that no one in the vehicle was alive. However, at this point, security team has honed in on Saito’s position. A couple dozen men begin to converge on the other hanger. Riptide begins to offer supporting fire, but the two are heavily outgunned.

Meanwhile, Helios and Zen remain hidden behind crates and barrels in the DMS hanger. As the security team begins to rush out the front, they quietly make their way out of the back door. They ran into a security fence, where Helios uses wolvers a cut a hole. The two then make their escape.

Things are not so easy for Saito and Riptide however. Not only were several security personnel converging on their position, but two of the SUVs rolled up to the gate, and pop-up turrets emerged on the roofs. .50 caliber machine guns began to pour lead into the hanger. Riptide and Saito are hit, however a combination of their armor and cover keep them alive.

Riptide slowly makes his way towards the backdoor of the hanger. Once outside however, he is not near the perimeter fence. Instead he is simply along a pathway between more hangers. Coming from the other side of the hanger are more security personnel that begin to open fire.

Saito is able to snipe the two guards manning the SUV turrets. The two SUVs then pull off to the side of the hanger. Saito takes this as an opportunity to fall back and head for the backdoor.

As Riptide comes around the North side of the hanger and he sees the two SUVs pull up and park. He immediately charges the first SUV and shoots the driver through the windshield. He then climbs onto the hood of the vehicle and rolls through the broken windshield. He then shoves the driver out of the driver side door.

Saito then comes around the corner and ducks low along the side of the SUV and climbs in the passenger side door. Riptide then steps on the gas and they pull away from the hanger, but are immediately pursued by the other SUV.

They race through the airport, dodging vehicles and baggage carts. Someone mans the turret of the pursuing SUV and begins to open fire on them. .50 Cal begin to shred the armored back of the SUV they are in. Saito is able to get his sniper rifle in position and first shoots the gunner, and then disables the vehicle. They then race out of the airport and pick up Helios and Zen.

They then try to contact Dr. Moore, to tell him that his rival has been eliminated. Much to their surprise it was not Dr. Moore who answers the phone, but Tobias Luna. It seemed he was now in Vegas and wants to congratulate them on a job well done. He says that when he realized what was happening in Vegas immediately headed down. He convinced the powers that be in Biotechnica that Dr. Moore had crossed the line with his experiment in Las Vegas. They decided it was best for Tobias to take charge of the operation. He intends to shut it down at this point but appreciates their generous offer to help Biotechnica in the future if they ever decided to use the bio-weapon.

The mission was done. They had traced the source of the Blue Glass thereby meeting the DEA’s objective. But this was a big personal victory for them as well as they had eliminated Diego Entrada. One of the two forces working against them had now been eliminated. They head back home to Night City for a much-deserved rest.

The team was able to close out the remainder of the year without incident. Normally, two months without work was frowned upon, but they were pretty banged up right about then, so the time off was appreciated.

January 14th, 2039

Riptide is working at the Golden Saloon when he is approached by a Filipino man named Kona. His is a fixer with a big job opportunity. He is offering 60 large for a two-part task.

The second part of the task will be stealing a personnel file from a data haven in an undisclosed location. But before that, they need to complete the first part of the mission.

The first part involves stealing a helicopter from an OTEC facility located in Night City. It needs to be stolen on the evening of the 18th, and taken to a designated spot out in the desert. There they will immediately set out on their second task. Riptids accepts the job.

January 15th, 3039

Zen uses her resources at Infocomp to find out what she can on OTEC. She learnes that the full name is Ocean Technology & Energy Corporation. The company specializes in sea going vessels and platforms. Their main source of income is offshore oil rigs and the ships that service those platforms.

Riptide does his own research, but on Kona. He learns that he is a small time dealer whose preferred market is stolen vehicle parts. A $60,000 data theft seems like a big score for such a small timer.

Saito stakes out the OTEC station. It is set on the water’s edge, fully fenced with a warehouse and two small hangers. He watches as a Bell-Huey CCK lands on a chopper pad. Technicians come out, fold up the rotors, and wheel it into one of the hangers.

That evening, Zen hitches a ride on the bottom of a transport truck bound for the secure warehouse across the street. Once inside, she sneaks over to the building that was closest to the road. She then sets up two cyber-cameras that can be accessed via Mouse’s computer and aims them at the OTEC facility.

She then tries to use the same method to get back out. Unfortunately, the truck hits a bump and she loses her grip. She narrowly avoids being run over, but someone has spotted what has happened and armed guards were now approaching her position. When the first guard arrives, she is able to subdue him and use him as a human shield long enough to make her exit.

Afterwards, Saito watches to see what the reaction inside the warehouse facility is. The staff and security are focused on the warehouse inventory, trying to see if anything has been stolen or vandalized. No one even comes close to spotting the cameras that are aimed at the facility across the street.

January 16th, 2039

This is Mouse’s day to do what he does. He records all of the video from the cameras watching the OTEC facility. He also hacks their computer system to see what they have for security. At the end of the day, he makes his report.

The fence surrounding the facility has vibration sensors. Pretty much every square foot of ground space is covered by cameras. OTEC uses its own security and does not contract it out. They have two guards on staff at anytime, working in 8-hour shifts. There are also 3-4 technicians on the premises at any given time.

While all of this is going on, Helios goes in search of a transponder for a helicopter. It takes some looking and a few thousand dollars, but he is able to find one.

January 17th, 2039

In the early morning hours, Saito and Riptide drive out the OTEC facility. Around 8:00 AM the two security guards who have completed their shift, drive off of the site and head towards their homes. Saito and Riptide each follow one guard. They are able to determine where each guard lives, and their living situation, including family, schedule of spouses, kids, and home security systems.

They then return back to the team headquarters. There they sit down and iron out a plan to steal the helicopter.

January 18th, 2039

During the day, Riptide and Saito each visit the homes of the guards they had followed. In both cases, the guard is secured, and then the edgerunner waits for the family members to return home and then they are secured as well.

Then they each drive the guard’s vehicle to the OTEC facility. They arrive around 11:00 PM. Each pulls up to the gate and uses the guard’s security badge to open the gate. First Riptide pulls in and then Saito does as well. They drive the vehicles into the hanger where the guards typically park.

Then, before the gate can close, the rest of the team, in a Robo-Rental van, piggyback in. This of course immediately alerts the guards already there with guns drawn. The team members are able to stall the guards long enough for Riptide and Saito to come up from behind the unsuspecting guards and relieve them of their weapons.

The guards are tied up and thrown into the back of the Robo-Rental. The return button is hit, and the vehicle begins the process of driving itself back to the Robo-Rental lot.

Helios begins the process of swapping out transponders while the others go into the warehouse and secure the technicians. The techs offer little resistance. Mouse hacks in remotely and disables the security alarms and cameras.

After roughly 20 minutes, the transponders are swapped and the team climbs into the CCK. Helios then flies the chopper out to the meeting point.

They arrive in the desert where they meet with Kona. He explains that they will be stealing the data from an offshore data haven roughly 180 miles out to sea. The data haven is owned and operated by Infocomp. The file they need is on an EBM employee named Fredrick Shumann.

The data haven has a 10-man guard team as well as an automated defense system designed to eliminate enemy ships and aircraft. He explains that they need not worry about that though, because the chopper’s transponder will let the platform know that it is a friendly.

The team needs to go immediately. Once the chopper is discovered stolen, its transponder code will be taken off of the platform’s friendly list.

The team immediately takes off, but not for the platform. They instead return to the OTEC station. Luckily no one seems to have yet discovered what happened. Helios swaps out the transponders again, returning the correct one to the chopper. About 15 minutes later, they are airborne and on their way to the data haven.

About an hour later they come upon a platform in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. On one end is a helipad. Next to that is a freight elevator positioned between two surface to air missile systems. Behind that is a control tower and back behind the control tower is a couple of loading cranes. As they approach the helipad they see ten guards in armored Infocomp uniforms and equipped with submachine guns. Four of them are positioned on the helipad itself.

Helios brings the chopper down. Saito and Riptide, still wearing the OTEC uniforms, step out with Mouse. Two of the guards immediately approach them and demand to know who Mouse is.

Riptide explains that OTEC has reason to believe that someone has found an exploit in the computer hardware that OTEC used when constructing the platform. The guards explain that they cannot let anyone off of the helipad that is not preauthorized. Riptide agrees to go with one of the guards to the control tower to get things cleared up.

They head to the control tower where the head of security, a comms officer and the executive officer are waiting. Riptide tells the executive officer that he could call the OTEC team leader, but being 2:00 AM, he may not be apprised of the situation as the security issue came up at the last minute.

The officer makes the call, and as Riptide had hoped, the OTEC guy on the other end has no idea what is going on, but will make a call to his office to find out what was going on. The problem is that it would not be long before OTEC learns of what has happened to their chopper and then things will go south fast.

Zen gets out of the chopper and begins to chat up one of the guards. Saito then approaches another guard demanding to know what is taking so long. He insists that he be allowed to go to the tower to make sure his partner is okay. Eventually the guard gets tired of arguing and calls the tower. The head of security says he will go down to the helipad.

Riptide waits until the security officer is about half way to the helipad. Then he pulls his weapons and points them at the security guard still in the tower. He orders everyone to drop their weapons and they comply.

The head of security makes it to the helipad and explains the situation to Saito. Saito decides that he is satisfied with the explanation. The security head radios the situation to the tower. The comms officer calmly makes a reply as Riptide holds a gun to his head.

The head of security returns to the tower to find the rest of the command crew tied up and Riptide waiting for him. Riptide disarms him and secures him as well. Riptide then gives the all clear to his team.

Helios gets out of the chopper and approaches one of the guards and then sucker-punches him with a stun glove, knocking him out. Zen uses her gang jazzler to stun the guard that she has been talking to. Saito gets the guard he is conversing with into a chokehold and chokes him out.

For a moment they think they are in the clear, but then they notice one of the guards by the defense system approaching to check things out. Riptide kills the lights on the helipad giving his team the advantage.

Saito is able to sneak up on the guard by the STA launcher who seems to have not noticed what has happened and is radioing the tower regarding the lights. Another chokehold takes him down. Helios distracts the other guard while Zen sneaks up on him and subdues him as well.

The team now out numbers the remaining guards. Riptide orders the head of security to instruct the remaining guards to stand down. He complies and the team manages to take control of the platform without firing a shot.

Riptide calls up Mouse. Mouse takes a look around the control tower and points out that there is no data jack there. The executive officer explains that the door to the vault is on the back of the platform. No one on board the platform has a key.

Mouse and Saito head to the door. Mouse pulls the electronic key panel off and plugs in his deck. With in a few seconds, the door slides open.

The two find themselves staring down a long narrow hallway with another door at the other end. They approach the door and Mouse again goes to work on bypassing the lock. His first attempt is unsuccessful and another door closes behind them, sealing them in. An air pump engages and begins sucking the air out of the room. Mouse begins frantically working at the lock as the two begin to feel light headed. A few tense moments later the doors open.

Once inside, Mouse jacks into the data haven. After a few minutes, he unplugs himself and reports that he has a copy of the data file.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team makes sure that they have everyone on board the ship secured. Once everyone is reunited, they board the chopper and head back to the coast.

Once they are back over land, they fly back to the meeting place in the desert. They turn over the chip to Kona. He then asks them where and when did they want to meet for the money. Riptide suggests right here and now.

Kona explains that he needs to get the chip to his employer and then he can get paid. He will then pay them. Against their better judgment, they agree to meet him at the Golden Saloon at noon, which is now only a few hours away.

They then take the chopper back home. Once they got close to Night City, Helios takes the chopper in low, flying just a few feet over the roof tops, some times flying along streets below rooftop level. Eventually they make their way back home. Helios lands the chopper. He begins to fold up the rotors while the others take the other vehicles out of the shop. Then they roll the chopper inside.

A few hours later, Zen heads off to her day job. Helios contacts Dollar Bill and begins the ball rolling on finding a buyer for the chopper they stole. Saito and Riptide head to the Golden Saloon.

Noon comes and goes with no sign of Kona. When the clock strikes 1:00 PM, Riptide is on the phone trying to contact Kona, but his phone goes straight to voicemail.

Riptide then hits the streets trying to see if he can track down Kona. It isn’t long before he gets word that around 10:00 AM, Kona got into his car and then his car his car went up in a ball of fire.

Riptide then begins working his contacts, trying to figure out who might have taken out Kona. He learns that a solo known as Cynthia Red specializes in car bombs, but he could not get any other information on her.

Riptide then contacts the others to tell them what he has learned. Zen decides on a long shot and calls Krissy and Roxie. It turns out that they do indeed know Cynthia Red. She’s not a friend, so much as an acquaintance. They don’t know a whole lot about her, but they do know she hangs at The Afterlife.

Riptide and Saito decide to go to the Afterlife that evening. First, they go home and try to get some sleep, having now been up over 24 hours.

After cramming in a few hours sleep, the two head to the Afterlife. Unfortunately, Cynthia Red is nowhere to be seen. They decide to head home and call it a night.

January 19th, 2039

The team spends the day taking care of errands and attending to their day jobs. That night, Saito and Riptide head to the Afterlife.

Luck is on their side this night as they spot Cynthia Red. Not surprisingly, she has bright red hair, and possesses the poise of an experienced solo. She also seems to have company, as she is busy chatting up a man at her table.

Riptide heads outside and finds a corner dealer to make a purchase from. He then heads back into the bar and gives it to Saito. Saito in turn, gives it to the bartender along with a bribe and some instructions.

The two then hang out, patiently watching the table. Finally, the man heads to the bar and orders a couple of drinks. He returns to the table and resumes talking to Cynthia. Several minutes later he passes out. They watch as Cynthia looks momentarily perplexed, then relieves her date of his wallet and heads for the door.

Saito intercepts her and tells her she could do better than the loser passed out at her table. She laughs and tells him she could tell someone spiked his drink, and rightfully assumes it was Saito.

She says she likes a man who comes on strong, and so he does. A few minutes later, they are kissing. Unfortunately for Saito, she is equipped with a cyber-snake in her mouth and uses it on Saito. The electrical shock that hits him nearly knocks him out, but he manages to stay conscious. The two begin to struggle, and a crowd gathers. Riptide hangs in the back and watches to see how things play out.

Eventually security arrives and immediately throws Saito out of the club. The staff begins to then question Cynthia. Riptide can’t her what they are saying, but he watches as the questions turn to accusations, and soon one of the bouncers has the stolen wallet in his hand. A few moments later, Cynthia Red is out on the street as well.

Riptide follows her out of the club and to her car. She turns, ready for a fight, but then Saito arrives to back up Riptide.

They question her about the hit on Kona. She says that Kona tried to change the terms of the deal with his employer, so his employer decided it would be cheaper to kill Kona and take the chip. She is reluctant to reveal her employer, but eventually admits it was Mr. Y, the same Mr. Y that had hired the team late last year to retrieve the stolen EBM chip.

Riptide explains that his team was the one to get the Infocomp data and he’d like to get paid for the work they did. She asks how much they are supposed to get paid and he tells her $60,000. She says she will ask Mr.Y about the money, but certainly cannot make any promises. Riptide and Saito let her go.

January 20th, 2039

Around noon the next day, Riptide gets a call from Mr. Y. Y explains that $60,000 is more than Kona had agreed to do the job for. He indicates however, that he will pay them their fee if they deal with another matter that has come up.

It seems that Kona was trying to engineer some sort of double cross, or triple cross as the case may be. In addition to screwing Mr. Y. and the team, Kona had also worked a deal with a man named Klaus Von Himmer, who was using Kona as a go between to extort Mr.Y. However, in his revised deal with Mr. Y., Kona wanted Y. to pay one million eurobucks for both the data on Shumann and where to find Von Himmer.

Mr. Y. had Cynthia Red kill Kona and take the data chip. Now however, he is concerned about this Klaus Von Himmer. With Kona dead, there is no real lead on locating him. If the team can find Von Himmer and eliminate him, Mr. Y. agrees to pay the full $60,000.

Their first course of action is to look into who is Klaus Von Himmer. It turns out he’s a newly escaped prisoner, who has spent the last few years in Brain Dance isolation. He was barely into serving his 39 consecutive sentences for murder when a power outage at the prison gave him an opportunity to check out early.

A background check indicated that although he was originally from Houston, Texas, he had worked in Night City for EBM, working as a courier. However, after blowing up an apartment building and killing 39 people, he was off to prison for the remainder of his life. He was out now, but the state decided to issue an arrest for his execution, which was then assigned to the State Executioner, Judge Julius Anderson.

Zen went to Infocomp to see what she could learn about Judge Anderson’s progress. While there, she learned that the company was offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who could provide information leading to the arrest of those who attacked their data haven. She briefly considered how to collect that reward, but then it was back to Judge Anderson.

It seems the Judge had tracked Von Himmer here to Night City due to an ill-advised call he had made to his mother in Houston. Anderson’s most recent action was to impound the remains of Kona’s vehicle. How Anderson knew the connection between Von Himmer and the now deceased fixer is unknown.

Luckily for the team, Riptide still has his contact working at the police impound yard. A quick phone call and a promise of a few bucks and they learn that Judge Anderson’s crew has not yet gone over the car remains. The two race over to the impound yard where they are allowed to examine the remains.

The car was once a Nissan Mage, but now is a pile of metal and plastic. They sift through the pile wreckage, trying to find anything useful. After nearly an hour of searching, they turn up nothing useful.

Then they notice that the car had contained a lot of after market parts. They sort those parts into a separate pile and begin to examine those parts specifically. They are able to determine that many of the parts came from a shop called The Dub Kings.

They are about to continue their examination when they hear a convoy of vehicles pulling into the impound yard. Riptide and Zen sneak over to the impound office and watch the proceedings on the security cameras.

Out of the vehicle come about a dozen officers in immaculate uniforms. But the last to emerge is a monster of a man, well over 6 feet tall and nearly as wide as he is a mass of grafted muscle. He too wears an immaculate uniform, but he sleeves have been removed, exposing his oversized arms. The badge on his massive chest indicates that this is Judge Julius Anderson.

His team works like a well-oiled machine, systematically going over the remnants of the vehicle, while he himself watches them, his hulking form standing perfectly still.

Having been contacted by the others, Helios heads over to The Dub Kings. He steps inside and is at first delighted to see the shop is run by fellow Thai like himself. But then they begin to talk in “tuner-speak”, an odd mix of English and Spanish, leaving him shaking his head.

He then tells them about being a fan of the Nissan Mage, and saw one that was completely tricked out and wanted to know if they knew who’s it was. The Dub Kings crew, eager to brag about their work, tell him that that car was their project that they did for a guy named Kona.

He asks them how much the mods cost, which they explained would run about $30,000, but Kona is a dealer in car parts, and provided many of his own. Not one to pass up a business opportunity, Helios tells them about his salvage business and that he would be interested in becoming a provider for them. They tell him they already have Kona, which reveals that they don’t know that Kona is already flat-lined. Helios gives them his contact info, and he begins to peruse the shop.

Back at the impound yard, it seems the officers from the State Executioner’s Office have noticed the same thing that the edgerunners did. They gather up their gear and load into the vehicles. Judge Anderson’s voice carries well, and they hear him tell the other drivers that they are going to The Dub Kings.

After the judge’s crew departs, Zen and Riptide locate the brain dance unit that was built into the car’s entertainment system. It is badly damaged, but they think that Mouse maybe able to pull some data off of it. They decide to take it back home.

Helios is still browsing the store when Judge Anderson arrives. He walks into the store and approaches the counter. He also asks the man behind the counter about the Nissan Mage, and the Dub Kings employee acknowledges that they did the work for Kona. Anderson then produces a photo of Klaus Von Himmer and asks if they have seen him. The employee denies ever seeing the person. Apparently Anderson does not believe him as he grabs the employee, pulls him over the counter and slams him onto the ground. The employee cracks and admits that the man in the photo is hiding out at his sister’s house. He gives up the address, and Anderson goes back to his vehicle.

Helios, who has been quietly watching the proceedings, radios Ritpide with the location of Klaus Von Himmer. Riptide and Zen are currently closer to that address than Helios and Judge Anderson. They race to the house.

They are the first to arrive. Zen heads into the narrow gap between the houses while Riptide goes to the front door. Zen finds herself face to face with a very large and unfriendly dog. She hopes it’s not viscous, but gives up on that notion as it chomps down on her leg.

This draws the attention of the woman living in the house. She grabs a shotgun and goes to the back door. Riptide takes advantage of this distraction and enters through the front door. He quietly heads up stairs and spots a man watching out the back window. Riptide quietly draws his pistol and approaches the man.

In the back yard, Zen is forced to stun the dog with her gang jazzler. The dog collapses in a heap. Just then a woman bursts out of the back door talking rapidly in a language Zen does not understand. Zen is able to grasp that the woman thinks that Zen has killed her dog.

Upstairs, Riptide talks to Klaus. He demands that Klaus turn over the data that he has on Mr. Y. Klaus is at first confused then realizes that Riptide is talking about his old boss at EBM, Edger Jaymes. He tells Riptide that he was framed for those murders. Riptide changes tactics and tells Klaus he needs to come with Riptide now as Judge Anderson is on his way.

Outside, Zen manages to convince the woman that the dog is not dead. She hears over her ear bead that Riptide is out of the house and on his way to the truck with Klaus. Zen slowly begins to back out of the backyard and heads back toward the street.

Just as Riptide and Klaus get in the truck, Judge Anderson’s convoy comes around the corner a couple of blocks away. They decide that Riptide should leave, immediately but casually. Zen will try and link up with Helios who has followed the convoy from The Dub Kings.

As Riptide slowly drives away, Zen goes back into the gap and returns to the back yard. She gestures to the woman that she is just passing through. She almost clears the backyard when the woman begins screaming at her again. This draws the attention of Judge Anderson who is coming up the front walk.

Zen breaks into a full run. She doesn’t look back, but she can hear the heavy footfalls of the State Executioner following her. He may be built for power, but he’s not built for speed, and she is able to put some distance between them.

In the truck, Riptide and Klaus head back downtown. Klaus explains that he used to be a courier for Edgar Jaymes. Edgar had paid a local booster gang to kill Edgar’s boss at EBM and make it look like a random gang violence incident. The only person who had info that could implicate Edgar was Klaus. He says it was Cynthia Red that blew up that apartment building and planted evidence to implicate Klaus.

Klaus says he planned to extort Edgar for enough money that he could disappear. His mistake was hiring Kona who apparently intended to sell him out. Riptide asks him where the data chip is, and he says it’s in a locker at the transit station along with some cash. Riptide says that in exchange for the contents of the locker, he will help Klaus get out of town.

Meanwhile, Zen seems to have lost the judge, but now she spots a police helicopter flying overhead. As she crosses a street, Helios comes racing up on his motorcycle. She climbs on and they take off. They start to head downtown when they spot the police chopper overhead.

At about this time, Saito is coming into the city via the highway, after spending the better part of the day working at the gun range. He is apprised of the situation and suggests that they go to the mallplex where they have a parking ramp that will provide cover.

He then contacts Buckshot Betty, who is on duty, but taking a break at a corner bar, and asks if she can head over to the mallplex and pick up his friends. She agrees.

Helios and Zen arrive at the mallplex and ditch the motorcycle in the ramp. They jump into Betty’s cab that is waiting for them and head over to the transit center.

Saito is the first to arrive at the Transit Center and locates the locker. He also spots a man in a suit watching the locker. He lets the other know.

The rest arrive. Riptide stays in the truck with Klaus. He gives the locker key to Zen who goes in with Helios. Zen circles around, gives the key to Saito and then gets behind the man watching the locker. Helios then goes to a fire alarm pull station, and pulls the lever.

The fire alarm is triggered. But instead of fleeing the building, most of the patrons look around to see if there is actually a fire. Finally security guards begin ushering people out of the building. Zen uses her gang jazzler to stun the man watching the locker and grabs his wallet. Saito goes to the locker, opens it, and grabs the case inside. They all then exit the transit center. They pull out just as the judge’s vehicles begin to pull in.

They begin to head back home. Zen checks the wallet and sees that the man is with the State Executioner’s Office. On a hunch, she examines the ID card. As she suspected, it contains a satellite transponder. She promptly throws the card out of the window. Saito checks the case and finds a pistol, a data chip, and $20,000 in cash.

Back home, they ask Mouse to examine the data chip. He says it does contain evidence to implicate Edgar James in the death of Daniel Cortez, another employee at EBM. The data chip is designed to note any copies that are made, so if they copy the data, Edgar James will know.

Mouse then looks into Cortez’ background. He finds out that Daniel was the Vice President of R&D for EBM’s Night City Office. He was killed in a gang-related shooting, after which his underling, Edgar Jaymes was promoted. Daniel was survived by a wife and two children.

Riptide hatches a plan.

January 21st, 2039

He asks Satio to rig up an explosive device big enough to take out the passengers in a car while he runs an errand. He then takes Klaus to a bus station and buys him a ticket to Houston. As promised, he gets Klaus out of the city.

When he returns, Saito has rigged up a bomb using some C-4 he had left over from a previous job. They then head out to The Afterlife. They spot Cynthia Red’s car. Riptide picks the lock and Saito plants the bomb under the driver seat. They then sit back and wait.

Around 3:00 AM, Cynthia exits the club. She climbs into her car. A moment later, the car goes up in a ball of fire.

When the sun rises, Riptide contacts Alisha Cortez, Daniel’s widow. He indicates that he has evidence that proves that her husband’s death was not a random act of violence. He is looking for $75,000 in payment for the evidence. She agrees to meet him in a coffee shop up in North Oak.

Around noon, Riptide goes to the coffee shop where Alisha Cortez and her lawyer Mr. Parsons are waiting. After introductions, they get down to business.

Mr. Parsons indicates that the $75,000 has been placed into an account and gives Riptide the numbers and passwords to access the account. However, he has placed a 72-hour hold on the funds. If the information proves to be useless, he will close the account and Riptide is out his money. If the information is useful, Riptide can withdraw his money when the hold expires.

Riptide asks what would prevent them from taking the chip and then closing the account before the 72 hours regardless of the value of the info. Mr. Parsons merely shrugs and points out that Riptide knows who Alisha Cortez is, while they don’t know who he really is. Riptide agrees and they make the exchange.

That evening, the team watches the news and sees special report from [[:jim stacey | Jim Stacey]], reporting on the arrest of Edgar Jaymes, on charges of conspiracy to murder Daniel Cortez.

Three days later, the hold ends,and they get their money. Between the Cortez payment, and Klaus’ stash, they make $95,000 plus have a helicopter to try and sell. Plus they have avenged a few deaths, making it a rare moral victory as well.

The group gets about three weeks of rest before their next job. They spend the time healing up and replacing damaged gear.

September 13th, 2038

Riptide gets a call from Mouse regarding a job opportunity. He has been offered a job that pays $50,000, which he is willing to share in a five way split. This means a $10,000 payday for each member. The job requires them to get a room at the Hotel Hamilton. There he would use a write-once-read-once box called an Agrippa to download a data transmission. They would then take the Agrippa to the Night City Transit Center and place it in a locker. Then they would mail the key to a designated address.

They agree to take the job, which will take place the following evening. In the mean time, Riptide acquires the use of a cargo van from his contact at the Night City impound yard. Helios scopes out the Transit Center and Saito picks a place to perch that will allow him to cover the team while at the hotel.

September 14th, 2038

At 6:00 PM they meet at the Forlorn Hope. After a quick review of the plan they get started. Helios dresses as a homeless person and waits it out the Transit Center. Saito, disguised as a janitorial worker gains access to the building to the East of the Hamilton and positions himself on the roof. The others take the van to the hotel.

When they arrive, Mouse checks with the front desk to see if he has any messages. The clerk hands him an empty envelope with an address already printed on it. They then head up to their room.

At 8:00 PM, Mouse jacks in and establishes the connection. The Agrippa begins the slow process of downloading the information. After several minutes, Saito spots several unmarked vans pull up to the hotel. Roughly 15 men in tactical gear get out and start conferring with one another.

With the information still downloading, Zen starts hitting buttons on the elevators to tie them up. Riptide breaks into the hotel room next door in case they need a back up escape route. Unfortunately they cannot leave until the download is complete.

The download finally finishes and Mouse jacks out. Unfortunately, at this point the tactical team is literally at their door. Riptide shoots out the window in their room. The strike team blows a hole in the door and demands that the team drops their weapons and surrender.

Zen secures a grapple line at the window. With Mouse clinging to her for dear life, she climbs outside, six stories above the ground. Riptide tries to hold off the strike team, but is forced to dive for cover, as the room is ripped apart by suppression fire. Before Riptide can recover, one of the strike team races by him, the bionic legs propelling the commando with superhuman speed.

When the commando gets to the window he aims down, intending to shoot the descending edgerunners. Riptide tackles the man, sending them both flying out the window. Both are able to grab onto the rope, Riptide having the slightly higher advantage.

Meanwhile, Saito begins firing at the vehicles, disabling the engines. He then opens fire on strike team members that are exiting the hotel, trying to keep them pinned down so that the others can escape.

Riptide and the commando continue to struggle against each other on the line. The commando then uses a retractable blade to sever the line below him. Zen and Mouse, who are still several floors above the ground, plummet to the earth. Both are badly injured as they slam into the ground, though Zen is able to remain conscious. Although barely able to walk on her own, she picks up Mouse and attempts to escape under the support of Saito’s sniper fire.

Another commando leans out the window and aims his weapon at Riptide. Knowing he is outmatched in this situation, Riptide surrenders, and he is hauled back up into the room. There he is handcuffed and interrogated about who he works for. He tells the truth and indicates that he does not know whom they are working for.

Helios, upon hearing the situation over his tactical radio had made his way to the hotel. Zen was still trying to get out of the area when he arrives and adds fire support to her and Mouse’s escape. He then gets into the van and picks the two of them up. They pick up Saito a couple of blocks away. They then drop Zen and Mouse off at the hospital. Helios and Saito then go to the Transit Center, renting a locker and placing the Agrippa inside. They then mail the key in the envelope.

They are forced to abandon Riptide who is under heavy interrogation. He eventually claims to work for Bill McKlusky. Calling his bluff, they load Riptide into a van and take him down to the marina to point out McKlusky. He does and they snatch McKlusky off the street. Both are then drugged and taken to an undisclosed location.

September 15th, 2038

The two fixers awaken, tied up in a warehouse. Not surprisingly, McKlusky is extremely unhappy with Riptide falsely accusing him of being behind the data theft. Meanwhile, by accessing the registration of the vans that the strike team used, the team learned that a German biotech company called Teschen Biotech employed the strike team. Further research determines that the company has a warehouse down by the New Harbor Marina.

Further complicating the issue is a call from Mouse. He is still in the hospital, but had regained consciousness during the night. The TV was on in his room when he saw a report indicating a shoot out between two heavily armed groups at a home out in Pacifica. The news reporter indicated that it was suspected that the Russian Mob owned the home. Mouse recognizes the address as the one on the envelope that they sent the key to.

The news also reports that Police want Gordon Marsden, the owner of Club Atlantis for a data theft involving Teschen Biotech. Mouse indicates that he believes that the fixer that hired him, named Mr. Go, may have been Gordon Marsden.

They considered the situation they are in. Teschen Biotech has Riptide in custody and its only a matter of time before they learn where the Agrippa is. The fixer that hired them is on the run. And the intended recipient of the key was apparently killed in a raid out in the suburbs. It was a complicated situation, but they knew their first priority. They had to get Riptide back.

Investigating the warehouse that Teschen owned, Saito was able to confirm that Riptide was there by scanning it with the thermo-graphic imager he had recently installed in his cyber optic. He then used the thermo-graphic imager and his heavy sniper rifle to shoot through the walls at the guards who were present. With the guards pinned down, Helios charged in and after an exchange of fire, was able to drag Riptide out. They opted to leave Bill McKlusky tied to his chair.

With Riptide rescued, they have to determine what to do next. Should they sell the info back to Teschen, or try to contact the Russian mob? Riptide, however, has a different idea.

Riptide calls Tobias Luna. He inquires if Tobias knows about the data theft from Teschen Biotech. Tobias states that he has been following the news. Riptide then states that he has the data and is interested in selling it. Tobias seemed shocks but quickly composes himself. He says that if Riptide actually has the data, Biotechnica will pay $100,000 for it. He gives Riptide a time and location to bring the data.

The next step is getting the Agrippa back. Helios again disguises himself as a homeless person and goes to the Transit Center. He spots a couple of individuals who are keeping an eye on the lockers. Riptide and Saito than create a disturbance in the Transit Center while Helios goes to the locker, picks the lock, and grabs the Agrippa. He immediately exits the Transit Center and makes sure he is not followed. Riptide and Saito then leave making sure they are also not followed.

Riptide then rendezvous at the location Tobias told him about. It appears to be some sort of “Black Site” for Biotechnica. The Agrippa is given to Tobias who has the data downloaded onto a terminal. A couple of computer techs then dive into the data and after a few minutes confirm that the data is legitimate. Tobias makes the payment as promised.

Riptide asks what the data is. Tobias explains that Teschen has created a nano-tech treatment that will initiate a sex change at the genetic level. Once completed, the subject’s new gender would be confirmed by even DNA tests.

He also stated that his intelligence agents are telling him that World Genetics had extracted the head researcher on the project for Teschen, and that they were likely behind the theft.

Riptide says that the Agrippa was to be sent to the Russian mob. Tobias thinks on this for a minute and then says that the team was likely set up to be to take the fall for a double cross. Mr. Go was probably contracted by World Genetics to steal the data. He took the job but intended to double cross them and sell the data for a bigger profit to the Russian Mob. By hiring the team to download the data and send it to the mob, Mr. Go could claim it was the edgerunners that betrayed him. He gets paid by the mob, and the team gets the blame for the double cross.

Mr. Go’s plan backfired however. Now the team got paid and Mr. Go has an arrest warrant on his head. Corporate espionage usually leads to a life sentence. This mission had its usual share of complications but things turned out better than expected. For the second time in a row, they ended up getting paid twice their original fee. Plus they moved closer to getting themselves back in the good graces of Biotechnica, although Tobias made it clear that would not happen as long as Helios was alive. They didn’t need to have Tobias as a friend, but it couldn’t hurt to have a corporate ally, now could it.

Over the next couple of weeks, the team got a much-needed break. Saito spent most of that time in the hospital. Riptide andHelios got cyber-optics to replace their blinded eyes. Torrent indicated that he had a personal matter to attend to that would talk him out of town, and did not know when he would return.

August 14th, 2038

William Davis, the owner of Pocket Fluff Advertising, Inc, contacts Riptide. Riptide meets Davis in his office. There, William tells Riptide that his brother and business partner was murdered three days ago. The police have begun to suspect that William was behind it, so he wants Riptide’s team to investigate and find out who really killed his brother. He also offers a bonus if they can do it in a week.

William then shows Riptide a video montage of various commercials that Pocket Fluff has recently done as part of a milk promotion campaign. The commercials are edgy and make fun of Arasaka, Militech, EBM, the President, and hippies. Apparently Pocket Fluff doesn’t mind ruffling some very powerful feathers.

William has his secretary Mumashi Asura escort Riptide out. She hands him a copy of the video and says that if he has any questions, he should contact her or Maggie Evans, who was Tom’s secretary.

Riptide goes home and gathers the team. He shows them the video and explains the job. The team decides that the first order of business is to find a free-lance Net runner who can cover for Torrent while he is gone. Riptide knows of a guy who hangs out at the Golden Saloon that may be able to help.

August 15th, 2038

Zen goes into work at Infocomp and does some digging into police files. She is able to learn that Tom was shot in his car by what appears to be a gyro jet rifle round. He was shot while sitting in his car in a southwest neighborhood near the Combat Zone. Tom does not live anywhere near that neighborhood. A call to his secretary, Maggie Evans determines that he had no business dealings in that neighborhood that she was aware of.

Riptide spends most of the day trying to find out if there are any hitters who are known for using a gyro jet rifle. As he suspected, using such a weapon for a hit is rare, as it is loud and messy. However, his inquiries come up empty.

That evening at the Golden Saloon, he speaks to Mouse, the hacker he has seen hanging out at the Saloon. He recruits Mouse to do some digging online for a share of the fee they are getting paid.

August 16th, 2038

Zen, Saito and Riptide go to the police impound to look at the car. Zen is able to use her Infocomp credentials to get a look at the car. While Riptide strikes up a conversation with the manager of the lot, Zen and Saito inspect the car. Saito is able to determine that the shot came from an upward angle, likely from a second floor location. Zen is able to find a small pouch tucked up under one of the seats. It contains Blue Ice, the popular synthetic drug.

Mouse is able to learn quite a bit about Pocket Fluff. It started out as a division of Turner Broadcasting before being bought by the Davis Brothers who turned it into a successful advertising business. They have offices in Seattle, New York, London, and Amsterdam. They have roughly 6,500 employees worldwide.

He also learns that Tom has a wife named Mallory and two children. The oldest is John, currently attending college in New Hampshire, and a 16 year-old daughter named Lisa.

Most interestingly, he learns that William owned 35% of the company and Tom owned 65%. According to legal filings, upon Tom’s death, Tom’s wife would get 45% ownership, with the other 20% transferring to William, giving him a total of 55% ownership of the company.

August 17th, 2038

The team spends the better part of the day involved in investigations. Talking to employees at Pocket Fluff they learn that Maggie Evans had worked for Tom for many years. Mumashi Asura was a more recent hire, having been brought on about a year and a half ago, having been hired through a temp service. They also learned that the commercials shown to them by William were part of an advertising campaign funded by the National Dairy Board. They also learned that DMS is the company’s biggest competitor.

Other investigations revealed that the area where Tom had been killed was Blood Razors territory. The team decided to go into the combat zone that evening to seek out the Blood Razors under the guise of looking to sell some Super Fly.

They encountered a couple of Blood Razors on patrol and got them to agree to take the Super Fly in exchange for some information. The Blood Razors indicated that the hit was done by one of the Voodoo Boyz, who had gone into Blood Razor territory without permission. They told the team where to find the gang and that their leader was a woman named Mother Sage.

They then drove into Voodoo Boyz turf and found their main hangout. The Voodoo Boyz would only allow one person to meet Mother Sage and it was decided that Riptide would be that person.

He went into the run down building lit by small fires and filled with the smell of cooking animals. Voodoo writings and fetishes were everywhere. Finally he was brought before Mother Sage, and older black woman dressed in Caribbean style garb. She was willing to give the name of the hitter, since he was not acting on Voodoo Boyz business at the time. But she had a price. Riptide was forced to give her $750 plus four ounces of his own blood. In exchange, he was given the name Skitterboy and an address.

August 18th, 2038

At 1:30 in the morning, they arrive at Skitterboy’s apartment building. Helios waits in the van, as Zen and Riptide head in. Saito goes around the back and climbs the fire escape.

They knock at the door but Skitterboy refuses to let them in. Finally, Saito sneaks in through the bedroom window and is able to get behind Skitterboy. Skitterboy, now at gunpoint, lets the others in.

They question him and he states that Tom’s daughter Lisa hired him to kill Tom. She hated her dad, and offered Skitterboy $20,000 to off him. Skitterboy gladly took the deal. They then take Skitterboy and head over to the Golden Saloon.

At 3:00 AM, Riptide calls William and asks him to come down to the Golden Saloon. William is less then pleased to be dragged out of bed that early, but Riptide convinces him that the matter is urgent.

An hour later, William Davis arrives at the Golden Saloon. The team tells him that it was his own niece that put out the hit on Tom. At first he refuses to believe it, but the team convinces him otherwise. He shows them Tom’s family photo that he carries with him and they notice that Lisa is wearing Voodoo Boyz colors.

William then offers them another $5,000 to bring Lisa to him. She should be at home and he has all of the security codes. They agree. Riptide stays with him and Skitterboy, while the other three go to get Lisa.

In an extremely rare moment for the team, the extraction of Lisa Davis from her home goes completely without a hitch. With the security access codes they are able to drive right up the family residence and into the garage. Once inside, they stealthily move to her bedroom, and secure the girl with minimal effort. They are able to drive off with her without waking anyone else at the residence.

At 7:00 AM, they arrive back at the Golden Saloon. William questions Lisa about the hit. She swore she knew nothing about it. Zen’s experience with interrogation tells her that Lisa is telling the truth. So they bring Skitterboy into the mix to sort things out.

He still insists that she hired him. It turns out that Lisa had been complaining that her dad was demanding that she get out of the Voodoo Boys. In her anger, she told Skitterboy that she wanted her father dead. A short time later, he got a call from a woman offering him $20,000 to kill Tom Davis. Skitterboy assumed it was Lisa. Zen looks at the call history on Skitterboy’s cell phone and determines that the phone call came from the Pocket Fluff offices.

They secure Skitterboy back in the van and head back home. William took Lisa home. They get a hold of Mouse and have him go to work on hacking the Pocket Fluff phone records. It takes him some time but the only thing out of the ordinary is that Mumashi frequently made calls to a competitor of Pocket Fluff’s, a Japanese company called Kishi Corporation.

At 7:00 PM, Mouse contacts Riptide to inform him that he did some background checking on Kishi Corporation. It turns out that Arasaka owns controlling interest in that company.

Riptide attempts to call William. When he answers, Riptide tries to explain that he believes that Mumashi is the one behind Tom’s Death. William, however, indicates that Riptide has called the wrong number and hangs up. The group remains puzzled for a couple of minutes until Riptide’s phone rings. Riptide’s caller ID says its William, but when he picks up, no one is on the other side. In the background he hears William and Mumashi arguing. Riptide suspects that William may be in trouble. After making a few more calls, he is able to determine that William’s last known whereabouts was on his way to his office.

They pile into the van and make their way to the office building that Pocket Fluff is located in. When they arrive, Helios recognizes another van parked there as having also been parked outside of Skitterboy’s apartment. The team decides to head in. On the way, Saito deflates the tires on the other van.

They head up to the Pocket Fluff office on 7th floor. When they arrive, they find William working on a bottle of whiskey. He says that Riptide was right. Mumashi was working on a plan to black mail the two brothers into selling the company to Kishi. However, when Tom indicated that he was interested in selling Pocket Fluff to DMS, which had recently made an offer, she had him killed to prevent the sale. Now with the edgerunner team in danger of figuring things out, she had to go for broke and had William sign over controlling interest at gunpoint. He then says he will double the fee if they can recover the signed papers.

The team scrambles back to the elevators but finds two armed men waiting for them in the reception area. Bullets are exchanged at high velocity. Saito takes down one with his gun, and then tackles the other one. The others decide to take the stairs.

As they burst out of the building, they see a car that was parked out front driving away. They get in their van and attempt to pursue. Upstairs, Saito incapacitates his opponent and tries to catch up to the others.

Realizing they may not be able to catch up to Mumashi, Zen calls Jarvic on the off chance he might be working and in the air. Luck is on the team’s side as Jarvic’s medical crew is currently out and about in their AV-4. He agrees to fake mechanical difficulties and sets down in a busy intersection right in front of Mumashi’s car. A man steps out of the back seat of the car and fire’s on the team’s van.

Helios and Zen argue over Helios’ plan to launch a grenade at the car. Riptide suggests that he back the van out of the traffic jam and try and circle around to flank the car. Zen and Riptide then exit the van under fire and move towards the car. Helios uses the sidewalk to back up the van and proceeds to head around the block.

Another gunman gets out of the back of the car and the two solos shoot it out with Zen and Riptide amongst the stuck cars at the intersection. The driver of Mumahsi’s car rams into the car behind them and then drives up onto the sidewalk to squeeze around the AV-4. Zen is forced to deal with both gunmen as Riptide concentrates his fire on the fleeing car.

Jarvic’s AV is forced to leave as sirens can now be heard in the distance. Zen dispatches the two gunmen as Riptide successfully disables the fleeing car, which is now almost a block away.

The driver of the car steps out and opens fire as Mumashi gets out of the passenger side and makes a break for it. Riptide shoots the driver while Zen guns down the fleeing woman.

The sirens are getting closer as Helios comes flying around the corner from the other direction. He pulls up to Mumashi’s body and quickly scoops up her briefcase and is rolling again. Riptide and Zen jump as he passes by them. They circle back towards Pocket Fluff and pick up Saito who has been running after them.

Back at HQ, they evaluate the mission and declare it a success. They collected one of their biggest paychecks to date with minimal injuries to anyone. Maybe their luck was finally changing.

Oh yeah, and maybe somebody should let Skitterboy out of the van…

June 21st, 2038

After learning about the death of Hijacker, the team decides that their business with Tobias Luna and Biotechnica is complete. They head home to decide how to spend their newly earned cash.

Unfortunately, they find their home has again been attacked. The doors are smashed in and most of their equipment is gone. Torrent is missing, as is his dummy computer. The real one, hidden away, appears to be intact. Saito checks his hidden weapon storage, and finds it has been busted open, and his very expensive rifles are missing.

They immediately suspect that Alys Grant is at it again. However, when they check with Death in the Afternoon, they learn that is was a SPARS team that had raided the place. They immediately recall it was a SPARS team that was after Rico.

At noon, they head to the Forlorn Hope. There they meet with the Professor. He believes that Lt. Bubba McCarty must have somehow figured out that they were involved in his failing to catch Rico. Therefore he went to their shop to confront them. Finding only Torrent there, he likely arrested the netrunner and then confiscated everything they have of value to make sure the rest of the team doesn’t split town. His likely goal will be to have the team either turn over Rico, or implicate the Forlorn Hope crew in helping with his escape. They decide to give McCarty what he wants, sort of. They plan to give him Rico’s location, but with enough advance warning that Rico can make his escape.

Jarvic receives a phone call from Hamstring who offers him an opportunity to distribute his Super Fly in other cities such as Denver and Detroit. Jarvic is evasive, as he has no idea who Hamstring is. He promises to get back to Hamstring after he considers his options. After he hangs up the phone, Jarvic immediately looks into getting a different apartment.

Riptide and Zen go to the Night City Justice Center to turn themselves in. They are placed in separate interrogation chambers and left to wait.

McCarty interviews Riptide first. McCarty tells Riptide that he can get back most of his stuff if he cooperates. Riptide explains that they had dealt with an unknown fixer, so he does not know who ultimately got Ricco out of town. He says he does know where Rico is, however, and gives McCarty the location.

McCarty then talks to Zen. Zen sticks with the same story as Riptide.

McCarty is not convinced that they have shared everything, so he pumps both of them full of truth serum. Riptide holds out, but Zen reveals that they did the job as a favor for the Professor. They are then both thrown in jail for interfering with a police investigation.

June 22nd, 2038

Zen and Riptide are released, along with Torrent. McCarty promises the return of most of their gear once he has his hands on Rico. Zen contacts the Professor to see if McCarty had contacted him yet. He said no, but that he had received word that Hand had been killed. The three then return home.

After conferring with Riptide, Jarvic arranges to meet with Hamstring at The Catch. At 10:00 PM, he arrives there along with Zen and Riptide. They make a deal that keeps Riptide distributing in Night City while Hamstring can distribute the drug in Detroit. He needs a sizable batch upfront, which will take Jarvic a few weeks to produce.

They inquire about the Berlin deal and what Hijacker’s role was in it. Hamstring confirms that Hijacker was not the one who stole the date from Biotechnica, but set up the deal for someone else. Who that person is, Hamstring does not know.

June 23rd, 2038

Riptide receives a call from Dollar Bill who states that he just had a call from someone named Dog Tag. This Dog Tag was a friend of Hijacker’s and claims that he is the one who hacked the Biotechnica Database. When Dog Tag learned of Hijacker’s death, he began to investigate. A hack of Hijacker’s phone records indicated multiple calls to Dollar Bill. Realizing that everyone else involved in the Berlin deal is now dead, Dog Tag figures that he’s next. Dollar Bill gives Riptide a number to contact Dog Tag.

Riptide finds a young punk hacker looking to make an easy couple of bucks. He has the weefle runner dig up what he can on the phone number. The kid determines that the number originates from a hab unit on the Crystal Palace. The unit is registered to a Chris Hackabout.

Riptide decides to make contact. He speaks to Dog Tag who requests Riptide’s help in protecting him. Riptide asks why the team should help Dog Tag and Dog Tag responds with a question of his own. He asks if the team has ever done any work for Biotechnica and if so, have they ever been unconscious while in the presence of Biotechnica agents. Riptide realizes that Helios was when Tobias Luna took him.

Dog Tag explains that Berlin is a nanotech weapon that is injected into its target. Once the nano-bots are in place they can be triggered by a remote signal. Berlin prevents the body from expelling lactic acid. The effect is that the victim suffers from sudden soreness that quickly leads to full body cramping. Within 10 minutes, the person dies, poisoned by their own muscles.

Dog Tag tells Riptide what to look for in a blood test to indicate the existence of Berlin. If Riptide helps him, Dog Tag will give him the data he has from Biotechnica on how to shutdown and destroy the nano-bots.

Riptide calls Helios and has him head down to REO Meatwagon. Jarvic runs a blood test and determines that Helios indeed has been infected by Berlin.

Riptide, Saito, Jarvic, and Zen purchase tickets to Crystal Palace. They drive to Oakland and board a shuttle to the Johnson Space Platform. Then they head over to Crystal Palace via an OTV.

Around 11:00PM PST, they arrive at Crystal Palace. They head to Dog Tag’s domicile. They knock on the door and announce themselves. While they are waiting for him to open the door, Riptide spots an unusual object attached to the door underneath the doorknob. They tell Dog Tag to get back from the door. Saito takes a close look and identifies it as a shaped charge with a motion trigger. The moment the door started to open, the explosive charge would go through the door killing the person on the inside. In this case that person would be Dog Tag. Saito deactivates the bomb and detaches it from the door.

They have Dog Tag hack into Crystal Palace’s surveillance system to find out who planted the charge. He eventually finds video of a woman attaching the device to Dog Tag’s door as well as a button camera on the opposite wall. This means that the assassins know that their plan has been foiled.

They have Dog Tag work on finding a way to follow the women’s movements and find out where she is staying. Zen, Saito, and Jarvic get some sleep, while Riptide stays up on guard duty.

June 24th, 2038

About 1:00AM, Riptide takes a look through the door peephole. He yanks his head back just as a spike gets rammed through the door. A tube quickly replaces the spike. Suspecting that someone is about to pump gas into the room, Riptide swings the door open and goes on the attack.

Outside is the woman as well as another man. Riptide stabs the man, who is holding the tube, which is attached to a cylinder. The wound is not fatal, but apparently catches the man completely off guard and he collapses. The woman pops a set of wolvers, and attacks Riptide.

Zen, Saito, and Jarvic are awakened by the noise. Jarvic stands guard by Dog Tag, and Zen and Saito move to the door to assist Riptide. The other man quickly recovers and rejoins the fight.

Riptide battles it out with the man as Zen and Saito double-team the woman. The melee is fast and brutal but eventually Riptide pummels his opponent to the ground. Saito grapples the woman, and Zen secures her with some restraints.

The two are dragged back into the room and interrogated. The two edgerunners go by Angel and Klaus. They were hired by World Genetics to eliminate anyone involved in the theft and sale of Berlin. The two names left on their list are Dog Tag and Hamstring.

The team then spends the next couple of hours debating what to do. They ultimately decide to have Dog Tag erase the video surveillance of the incident. They make arrangements to get Dog Tag off of Crystal Palace and into hiding. They call Hamstring and apprise him of the situation. Jarvic gives the two edgerunners a lethal dose of a depressant and they leave the bodies in Dog Tag’s room. Chris Hackabout was an assumed name, so Dog Tag was not concerned about being traced.

They then make arrangements to get back off of Crystal Palace. But not before doing a little shopping, where Saito acquires an orbital crystal mono-blade. By late evening, they are back home in Night City.

June 25th, 2038

Jarvic gets to work on using the data Dog Tag gave them to process an antidote for Berlin, to give to Helios. Saito begins to conduct surveillance on Alys Grant’s home. Riptide conducts some business and then returns home to find a Night City Utility truck parked outside of their home. The truck is there to pull the illegal power connection that the team has been using. Riptide, with help from some members of Death in the Afternoon, chases them off.

June 26th, 2038

Zen heads into the hospital to get some sub-dermal armor implanted. Jarvic administers the Berlin counter-agent to Helios. He then goes to a ripperdock and gets some minor implant work done.

The utility truck returns along with a couple of Night City Police units. The team is issued a fine of $1,000 and ordered to pay some back charges.

June 27th, 2038

Saito continues his shadowing of Alys Grant. Zen is in the ICU due to complications of the surgery implanting her armor.

June 28th, 2038

Riptide gets their home set up with legal power service after paying the fine. The team learns that Professor brokered a deal with McCarty to bring Ricco back in. McCarty can get his televised perp-walk, but Ricco gets the treatment he needs rather than just getting tossed in jail.

June 29th, 2038

Saito continues shadowing Alys Grant. Riptide arranges to get some forged parking passes for Cloud Villas, the gated community that Alys Grant lives in.

June 30th, 2038

Network 54 News reports that SPARS commander Bubba McCarty has captured the Calypso Club Killer Enrico Estevez. Riptide goes to the Night City Justice Center to retrieve the team’s confiscated equipment. They are given back everything except most of the weapons. Saito’s Arasaka sniper rifle is returned however.

That evening, Riptide, Saito, and Helios go to pay Alys Grant a visit. They use the forged parking pass and are let into the community. Helios waits in the vehicle as Riptide and Saito go to her door.

They knock and a few moments later she answers. When she sees that it is them, she immediately tries to slam the door shut. Before she can get it closed, Saito throws his weight into the door, knocking her onto the ground.

Riptide produces both pistols and aims them at her head, while Saito clears the rest of the apartment. Once it is determined that they are alone, the talk commences.

Alys admits that she was behind the attack on their home and the hit on Hand. She had not planned on taking any further action as Hand is now dead, and she felt that the team has been adequately warned.

They demand she pays them $10,000 as compensation for the damage done to their place. They also make it clear to her that if she meddles with them at all; they will get to her and kill her. Once they are sure she understands the situation, they take their leave.

McCarty and Grant were now off of their backs, and Berlin incident has been wrapped up. With these loose ends secure, they could now start concentrating on their future. But there were other past events that were about to come back to haunt them.

After chasing down Rico and helping getting him out of the city, the team focuses on healing. Toshi “Torrent” Kimura and Helios get out of the hospital, Torrent with a new cyberarm. Helios opts for some elective surgery and has some additional implants installed, further damaging his already ailing humanity. The team gets about a full month to recover.

June 19th, 2038

Helios gets a phone call from a male voice stating that Helios should assemble his team and meet at the Caf-Caf coffee house at 1:00 PM.

Saito arrives early to watch the place. He watches as a girl behind the counter gets a phone call to reserve a table with a full brain-dance station. A few minutes later, when Helios, Riptide, and Zen arrive, the same girl seems to recognize Helios, and directs them to the reserved table.

Reluctantly, they put the electrodes on their heads and begin the brain-dance session. They find themselves outside a stately manor as it snows. They approach the front door, which opens on its own. They find themselves in a spacious living room with a roaring fire in the fireplace.

A side door opens and a man steps in wearing a velvet smoking jacket and matching ascot. His face is hidden in shadow however. As he moves about the room, the shadow seems to follow him so that his face is never clearly visible.

He thanks the team for coming, and indicates that the team possesses a skill set that he needs to make use of. The company he works for has had some important proprietary data stolen from one of its orbital platforms. Two files were taken, and word on the street is that it is going to be sold in Night City. He will pay the team $20,000 to recover the data and another $10,000 if they identify and eliminate the thief.

The two files are named “Berlin” and “N792B.” The files contain blueprints and biological data. Both are encrypted and contain anti-hacking defenses. He recommends not attempting to look at the file.

Zen insists that he reveal whom they are working for. The man is reluctant but indicates that Biotechnica is hiring them and that their Copernicus Orbital Satellite’s datafortress was hacked. The team agrees to take the job and the brain-dance session ends.

The team goes on their separate ways. Zen heads to Infocomp to see what she can learn there. Riptide goes to the Forlorn Hope and talks to the Professor. Saito contacts Apoc, his Mossad contact in LA. Zen and Saito come up empty, but Riptide is steered to Dollar Bill who is currently hanging out at the Tequila Sunrise.

At 5:00 PM, Riptide is at Tequila Sunrise and talks to Dollar Bill. Dollar Bill does not know about any deals involving stolen Biotechnica data. He does tell Riptide that if the stolen data involves biological material, there are two people he should talk to. The first is Bill McKlusky, a body parts dealer down by the marina. The other is Hamstring, a biotech dealer that hangs out at a nightclub called The Catch.

The team members make contact and compare notes. Riptide decides that he will hunt down Bill McClusky. Zen decides that she will head to The Catch and track down Hamstring.

Riptide spends the rest of the day tracking down McClusky. He eventually finds him and inquires about the stolen data. Bill McClusky remains vague about how much he does or does not know about the deal. Eventually, Riptide gives Bill $200 in exchange for info on the deal, which Bill promises he will have the next morning.

Zen arrives at 10:00 PM at The Catch along with Saito, who will remain in the van. The Catch has a line out front full of hopefuls hoping to meet the bouncer’s high standards for which patrons they let in. Although she has to make a wardrobe adjustment, she is able to get in.

Inside the club, she talks to the bartender who indicates that Hamstring can be found up on the mezzanine. She makes her way up there and is eventually able to get Hamstring’s attention. He is a handsome man in his late twenties. Most everyone on the mezzanine is a member of his entourage.

They make small talk for a few moments and then get down to business. Zen is able to figure out pretty quick that Hamstring is involved in the deal. Naturally, he is reluctant to discuss the deal. When she learns that he is interested in the Super Fly drug that has been making the rounds, she offers to put him in contact with its creator in exchange for info on the deal.

She learns that Hamstring acted as a go between for a hacker named Hijacker and a ripperdoc named Hing Wu. Hijacker was selling the data to Hing Wu, which he referred to as Berlin. Hamstring gives Zen the address of Hing’s shop in Little China. As agreed, she gives him Jarvic’s contact info.

She stays until after 1:00 AM, and then heads to the van. She learns that Saito also had a successful night, involving one of the girls who were waiting in line outside.

June 20th, 2038

At 8:00 AM, Riptide returns to the marina to meet with McClusky at the appointed time. McClusky, however, is a no show. Riptide spends the rest of the morning searching for him. At noon, he tracks down McClusky who admits he has no information on the deal. McClusky pays back the $200, which Riptide makes clear he had better give back.

The team meets back at their home to discuss the situation. Riptide contacts the man who hired them on the number they were given. He explains that the deal has already gone down, but they know whom the buyer is and have a lead on the seller. The man explains that they are to get the files back from Wu and find out who sold the data. After Riptide hangs up, he realizes he recognizes the voice on the phone. It was Tobias Luna.

At 1:30 PM, they head to down to Little China and stop at Wu’s Infirmary and Cyber Center. Riptide and Zen go in to speak to Hing Wu. They speak to Hu, who naturally does not acknowledge any involvement in the sale. Riptide and Zen apply some pressure and he cracks. He was paid by a company called World Genetics to purchase the data when it was offered to him. He then had the data hidden in a data fortress for Amstein Agricultural. Riptide calls Tobias and indicates where the files are located. Tobias says that his own netrunners can extract the data from Amstein without any issues.

Torrent checks out the BBS sites and is able to determine that Hijacker is a netruuner. Riptide arranges to have Dollar Bill contact Hijacker in regards to a big job that would need to be discussed in person. They offer to fly him to Night City. They plan to take him to the Golden Saloon and determine if he is the guy they are after.

At 10:00 PM, Zen receives a phone call from Hamstring. He indicates that earlier that evening, someone killed Hing Wu. He was apparently tortured and executed. He wants to know if Zen’s crew is responsible. She denies it and states that he may be in danger and should probably lay low.

Riptide contacts Tobias and asks if he was the one who had Wu killed. Tobias says he had nothing to do with it. The data was at Amstein as Riptide had indicated, so as far as Tobias is concerned, that end of the matter was wrapped up.

At 11:00 PM, Zen gets a call from Hamstring. Hijacker called him, asking about the deal just offered him by Dollar Bill. Hijacker is aware the Wu is dead, and he is therefore reluctant to come to Night City. Using Hamstring as a go between, she is able to convince Hijacker to come to Night City where he will be under their protection. They schedule him on a 7:00 AM flight.

June 21st, 2038

The team checks its bank account first thing in the morning and find that Tobias deposited the $20,000 as promised. They then head to the airport, but after the flight from Denver arrives, its clear that Hijacker is not on it. Zen talks to the airline staff and is able to determine that Hijacker never got on the plane.

Zen contacts Nails, and asks her to check the homicide reports for Denver for the last 12 hours. Sure enough, Hijacker was found in his apartment, tortured and executed.

The team decides that this event ends the mission for them. They contact Tobias and indicate that Hijacker was the thief, and that he has been eliminated. Tobias is satisfied with this, and promises to deposit the remaining $10,000.

The team decides to head home having completed the mission. However, questions linger. If Hijacker was the last link in the chain, why was he tortured for information? Perhaps more importantly, who is doing the torturing? Who ever they are, they beat the team to Hijacker. Is Hamstring on their list? Is the team?

May 13th, 2038

Zen is hanging out at the Forlorn Hope catching up with Krissy and Roxie and comparing exploits. About 9:30 PM, Night City’s SPARS team storms in. Police in body armor begin passing out leaflets to each of the tables.

Zen takes a look at one and sees two photographs on it. The first is a Hispanic man in tiger stripe fatigues with the name Estevez on his name patch. Zen also notices that unit patch on his sleeve is for LRT-601. The second photo is of an armored up cyborg shooting in a wide arc in what appears to be a police or traffic cam video. The date stamp indicates it happened today.

One of the officers, a formidable looking man in body armor and a tight buzz cut takes to the stage and begins using the microphone. He indicates that the second photo is of a cyborg that went on a killing spree down at the Calypso Club earlier this evening. Apparently a deal went bad and he snapped. Anytime a person appears to have had a cyber-psychotic breakdown, its up to him and his SPARS team to bring the ‘borg down, one way or the other. He believes that the cyborg in the second picture is also the person in the first picture, Enrico Estevez, a South American War vet. The officer knows that the Forlorn Hope is a popular hangout for those vets, so he figures this is a good place to start looking. He asks if anyone has any information and is not surprised when he gets no response. He then reminds the crowd that a person suffering from Cyber-psychosis has lost all humanity and all control, and is no longer their normal selves. He also reminds them that he is authorized to take any measures he deems necessary to bring Estevez in, including using lethal force against anyone who gets in his way. On that ominous note, he and his team depart the Forlorn Hope.

Jonathan “Saito” David, who has been running some errands downtown, stops at the Forlorn Hope just in time to see the SPARS leaving. Intrigued, he enters as the John “Professor” Freeman starts calling off people’s names, including Zen’s, and asks them to follow him in back. Saito decides to tag along.

In the back are gathered familiar faces from previous jobs. Roxy and Krissy are there, as well as Marlo and Hollywood Henderson. The two bouncers IcMax “Ice Pick” Johnson and Ringo are there as well. A few unfamiliar faces are there as also there.

Professor indicates that Rico Estevez was a member of the Long Riders, just like himself, William “Dollar Bill” Dolarhyde, Icepick, and Ringo. Back in those days, Rico was a good and compassionate man. Unlike most of the unit that ended up here after the war, they lost contact with Rico. Rumor had him working as a mercenary, possibly living in Miami. If the cyborg in the photo is Rico, the Professor wants to do everything he can to help him. If Rico really has gone past the point of no return, he wants him to die at the hands of a friend, not some SPARS hit squad.

He is now asking for everyone’s help. He can’t pay anybody, but some people here do owe him. Zen and Saito can’t help but notice that he was looking at them when he uttered those words. He also states he wants to help Rico, but not at the cost of anyone else’s lives. He says that the SPARS leader is named McCarty, and that he will make good on his threat and roll over anyone who gets in his way. The Professor emphasizes the importance of avoiding a confrontation with the SPARS.

With that out of the way, he gets down to business. He says that McCarty indicated that the incident at the Calypso Club was the result of a deal gone sour. Since everyone Rico knows in Night City is currently in this room, its safe to assume that he was there on a business deal. The first step is to figure out with whom he was meeting with. The Professor knows that the Calypso Club is a popular hangout for the Blue Angles, a smuggling team, Union Force, a mercenary military unit, and the Morks, one of Night City’s bizarre poser gangs. The Professor divides the room into teams, each assigned to following a lead. Saito and Zen, along with Ringo, are given the job of driving out to the old Petrochem refinery, where Union Force is headquartered and find out what they know.

Zen places a quick call to Riptide, who is currently relaxing at home. He loads up all of the gear that he can fit into the van and drives to the Forlorn Hope, where he picks the other three up.

At about 11:00 PM, they arrive at the Union Force HQ. They pull up to the gate, but the guard booth appears to be empty. Closer inspection reveals that it seems to have acquired some recent bullet holes. Taking a look inside reveals two dead guards. Their pistols are still in their holsters and their M-16s, still racked. Riptide forces open the rolling gate and gets inside the booth. The bodies are still above room temperature, so the hit happened recently.

They then make their way across the compound to the main building. Zen finds the door unlocked and steps inside. She immediately has to step back out as she is greeted by a hail of gunfire. Zen is able to convince the person, named Sid, to cease fire and talk.

Sid indicates that a man named Stringer was working as a liaison between Union Force and its employer for a job in Indonesia. Stringer and their commander, Nate Ryder didn’t get along from day one. Things were coming to a head when the two of them decided to go over to the Calypso Club to talk things out. A few hours later, Stringer came back by himself, and then without warning, opened fire. Sid estimates that they have 20 currently dead here at the base.

The team seems to be on the right track. Ringo confirms this when he says that Stringer is a handle that Rico had frequently used. Zen asks Sid what he knows about Stringer. He knows that Stringer is staying at the EZ Overnighter Luxury Coffins. Beyond that, he knows little. Zen gives him her contact information and they then head out for the EZ Overnighter.

Close to midnight, the team arrives at the EZ Overnighter. The clerk confirms that there is a heavily modified solo staying on sight, but states that it is against company policy to reveal where tenants are staying. Zen and Riptide each give him $100, which helps convince him to make an exception. The clerk tells them that he is staying in coffin 121.

They head to coffin bunker #1 and find coffin 21. Saito positions himself in an overgrown lot next door that gives him line of fire on the bunker. Riptide uses a key he got from the clerk to open the door, but as he is opening it, he detects that the door is rigged. Luckily he is able to stop himself before triggering the mine that was wired to the door. Ringo is able to remember enough of his demolition skills to disarm the trigger and allow them to open the door.

Inside that find some personal gear and a photo taped to the ceiling. The photo is of LRT-601, posing for the camera while in the jungle. The team can recognize younger versions of the Professor and others from the Forlorn Hope.

Then they notice a cyborg emerging from the shadows on the north side of the facility. Ringo recognizes the man as Rico. Rico immediately opens fire with his Militech Renegade. Ringo dives into the coffin while Riptide runs to a nearby maintenance shed. Zen is not able to get out of the line of fire, but her armor protects her.

While Zen tries to get out of the line of fire, Ringo yells at Rico to stop shooting. Luckily, Rico recognizes his old squad mate and ceases fire. Ringo is able to convince Rico to come to their position. Once there, they are able to talk.

Rico does not appear to have gone cyber-psychotic, but he seems to be right on that edge. He confirms that he was working as a liaison for a job with Union Force. He did not get along with Nate Ryder, who seemed to have contempt for South Am Vets. The two were basically ordered by the Union Force members to work out their problems before they went forward with the job. So the two went to Nate’s favorite hangout, the Calypso Club. But once there, Nate started in on him again and basically he told Rico he needed to shut up and take it. Rico finally snapped and went after Nate, regardless of who got in his way.

After years of killing and all of the cybernetic enhancements that have chipped away his humanity, the fact that many innocents were caught in the crossfire seems to bother him little. All he could think about was killing Nate. The tragic irony is that out of all the deaths he caused, Nate was not one of them.

Rico is clearly in trouble, not just legally, but also mentally. He is in a heap of trouble and begins to despair. Then Ringo tells him that the Professor is still around, and wants to help. Learning the their old unit leader is at the Forlorn Hope, Rico agrees to go.

Just as the team gets ready to leave the EZ Overnighter, an Arasaka Combat 10 APC rolls onto the lot. The Union Force label is emblazoned on the sides. The back ramp opens and 30 armed men, including Nate Ryder pile out. The team is caught in the open. There are able to find cover, but not before the Union Force men spot them and open fire.

A massive firefight ensues. The team is outnumbered six to one, but they have a better position, and a cyborg on their side. Saito moves up to a better position and begins sniping opponents moving across the lot. Ringo and Rico take the north side. Zen and Riptide try and hold the middle.

Several of Forcers spot Saito’s position and begin to try and flank him. A group of Forcers, including Nate Ryder, moves up the middle, trading shots with Zen and Riptide. Planning to take down a cyborg, the Forcers are all armed with armor piercing rounds. Nate throws a frag grenade right on Riptide’s position, but the grenade fails to fully detonate and Riptide is shaken, but unharmed.

On the north side, a majority of the Forcers move on Ringo and Rico, and are able to draw them into crossfire. Ringo is badly wounded, but Rico’s metal plating holds up, even against the AP rounds. He is able to drag Ringo to safety, and then goes guns a blazing against the Forcers.

Saito has to change position as the flankers on the south side as begin to move in on him. In the middle, Riptide is able to wound Nate, though lightly. Nate is able to score a hit on Riptide. His weapon is armed with specially made penetrator rounds, which are normally used against lightly armored vehicles. It rips through Riptide’s armor, and he goes down.

On the north side, Rico is making easy work of his enemies. His SAW rips apart the Forcers while their own AP rounds are barely scratching him. Finally, the Forcers radio forward the APC, which opens fire on Rico with its 40mm cannon. The first shot misses, blasting apart a coffin. Rico is able to get out of the way of the second shot and he moves himself close enough to the APC that the turret cannon cannot target him.

The APC crew instead uses the .50 caliber machine gun. They cannot target Rico with that either, but they can draw a bead on Zen, still positioned in the middle. The half-inch rounds slam into her. Her armor holds, but it is torn up, and she can already feel her whole body turning purple from the bruising.

The south flankers throw a grenade on to Saito’s position. He is able to avoid the blast. He is unable to continue supporting Zen in the middle, as he must now address the soldiers that are now in position to attack him.

Rico moves around the back of the APC and comes face to face with Nate Ryder. Nate tries to bring him down with his penetrator rounds, but Rico’s enhanced reflexes are faster, and Rico guns down the Union Force leader.

With Nate dead, and three quarters of their men dead or wounded, the Union Force calls a retreat. The APC moves to hold the middle as the remaining men, and whomever they can drag, get into the APC.

As soon as the APC moves off of the property, Zen helps Riptide back to his feet and Rico picks up Ringo. Saito joins them just as they hear the sounds of sirens off in the distance.

They quickly pile into the van and fight the temptation to race away at full speed. Instead they drive away at a casual pace. They get only a couple of blocks away, when they see the SPARS team racing to the EZ Overnighter.

They take Rico to the Forlorn Hope, where the Professor and Dollar Bill are waiting. Dollar Bill already has resources in place to get Rico out of town. Along, with Ringo, they then pay a visit to Trapper John to get stitched up.

Rico appears to be safe now, and hopefully he gets the help he needs from his friends. But what about the team? The SPARS will find Union Force members at the EZ Overnighter. The Union Force has Zen’s cell phone number. How long before Lt. McCarty and the SPARS are knocking on the their door?

After returning the missing boy to his mother, the next few weeks are quiet. Torrent is a bit disturbed that a coworker at Raven Micro-Cybernetics seems to know that Torrent is the one selling the Wraith program. Torrent claims to know nothing about it, but then begins to rethink how he is selling the program as clearly someone has started putting the pieces together.

Helios begins making some security related modifications both to the tow truck and his motorcycle. Zen works on figuring out how to use her resources at Infocomp to learn about who it is at Arasaka that wants them dead.

April 28th, 2038

Zen is hanging out at The Afterlife when a man in a black suit approaches her. He introduces himself as Webbs. He has an offer for a quick job. He is going to make an exchange in two hours at the Blowtorch, a club on the west side known for its tendency to play grind core. Its 500 bucks for a couple hours work. Zen agrees. He insists they go there straight away. Although he offers to share a cab, Zen insists on taking her motorcycle, despite the pouring rain.

On the way, she calls home and asks for backup. Riptide, Jonathan “Saito” David, and Torrent agree to help her out. Several rain-soaked minutes later, she arrives at the Blowtorch, right behind Webbs. They head inside. The other three arrive a few minutes later. Riptide and Torrent keep an eye on things from the outside. Saito heads in and takes a seat in a position that allows him to watch Zen and Webbs’ table.

While they wait, Webbs tries to make small talk and buys a drink for himself and Zen. Saito observes a Japanese man in a black suit by the bar, watching the table.

A few short moments later, Zen notices two young punks moving towards them. They brandish pistols and immediately start shooting. Webbs is hit in the arm before Zen can get between him and the attackers. She begins to push him towards the door, doing her best to use the crowd as cover. She then becomes their target. Her armor protects her from most of the hits, though she does take a grazing wound to the head. Saito, who had been watching the Japanese man, begins to move towards the two punks.

Zen gets Webbs safely to her motorcycle where she applies quick first aid to his bullet wound. Unfortunately, he looks much paler than he should for a relatively minor wound. He then complains that he does not feel very well. She orders him onto her bike and tells him to hold on. She then races to the ripperdoc Trapper John.

The two punks burst out of the club just as Zen drives away. Apparently they do not have a means to follow and dejectedly walk in the other direction. Torrent and Riptide follow them for several blocks, at which point the two punks make their way into a corner bar. Riptide and Torrent follow. Inside they hear the two argue over whether it was a successful job. One feels they failed because they did not kill Webbs. The other sees it as a success because they were paid up front.

Much to Torrent’s surprise, Riptide pulls out his two pistols and puts them at the back of the punks’ heads. Torrent quickly fumbles for his gun and follows suit. The two punks state that they were paid up front by some guy with a southeastern accent to go into the club and kill Webbs. Who the guy was or why he wanted them dead, the two of them didn’t know and didn’t ask. Realizing that he was dealing with a couple of over-their-heads rookies, Riptide confiscates their weapons and leaves them be.

Zen is racing to the ripperdoc’s when she feels Webbs let go. She stops the motorcycle just as Webbs collapses onto the street. She calls for Saito who is already on his way in the van. When Saito arrives, they get Webbs into the van and go to Trapper’s.

Unfortunately, Trapper has to point out that he is not a body bank, as Webbs is Dead on Arrival. They pay Trapper to run a toxin screen, which he indicates he will have the results of tomorrow.

Zen goes through Webbs’ suit and finds about $1,500 cash, an odd-looking data chip, and a business card. This business card is for Frank Harnes, a sales manager for Unlimited Concepts’ Orbital Division. On the back are several notes. There is a note to call John Burks, but there is no number. There is a phone number for a Frita Loay’s, and along the bottom a Net address. Torrent examines the chip, but it is of a type he does not recognize. It will not work in a standard chip reader.

Meanwhile, back home, Helios is hanging out when the power suddenly goes out. He goes on high alert, and makes contact with the other team members as the back up generator kicks in. However, it appears that the storm has knocked out all power in their area. It comes back on a few hours later.

April 29, 2038

The team learns that a high strength synthetic poison killed Webbs. Trapper figures it likely came from a Japanese biotech lab. Beyond that, the team does not further investigate the matter.

April 30, 2038

Riptide is home alone cleaning his guns when he feels a tap on his shoulder. He attempts to judo flip the person over him, but the intruder easily parries the attack. Riptide goes for a pistol, which the man makes no attempt to stop. He does tell Riptide to relax. He just wants to talk. The man is Japanese and dressed in a black suit. The man asks if Riptide has the chip. Riptide says he does not have it on him, but he knows where it is. The man indicates that he is willing to pay for the chip. When Riptide says tells him to name a starting price, the man states that he is willing to pay $100,000 for the chip. Riptide agrees without further negotiation.

With the price agreed upon, the man hands Riptide an envelope to “prove” that the offer is serious. In it are five tickets for transport to Crystal Palace. There are also hotel accommodations for two nights as well as a Crystal Palace credit chip worth $10,000. The orbital flight is in Saturday.

The rest of the team returns home to learn the news. They are surprised to learn that the tickets are in their real names. Also, the question was brought up as to how he got in without triggering any of the alarm systems.

The biggest questions are what is on the chip and who is willing to pay so much for it. However, the team chooses not to look into it.

May 1st, 2038

The team goes about their regular routines, still not feeling a need to look into what they have gotten themselves into. They do take precautions however. They make sure that one of them is carrying the chip at all times, and make sure that that person is never alone. Saito begins to wear full combat armor around the house so that he is ready at a moment’s notice.

May 2nd, 2038

On Sunday, Riptide and Zen are at the Mallplex shopping. Helios is working in the garage, while Saito is camped out in Torrent’s apartment, with Torrent who currently holds the chip.

Torrent steps out of the bathroom when the armored window in the living room has a hole punched in it followed an instant later by Torrent’s right arm exploding at the bicep. Time seems to stand still for a moment as Saito and Torrent stare at the stump where Torrent’s arm was attached just moments ago.

Then gunfire erupts outside, breaking the moment. Torrent collapses as Saito runs to him, staying below the window. Helios is on his way to investigate when one of the doors in the garage explodes. Just as he recovers his senses, two men armed with squad assault weapons begin to riddle the garage with bullets. Helios tries to return fire, but is pinned down by the gunfire.

Saito ties a tourniquet around the remainder of Torrents arm. He is stabilized but will need medical attention soon. Saito grabs the massive Arasaka WSSE/R sniper rifle and crawls out into the hallway. Helios is there trying to avoid the lead storm blasting its way through the hall. Saito is able to spot one of the assailants and takes a shot. The .50 caliber electro-thermo round punches through the man’s armor, blowing most of his chest out his back.

Helios is able to crawl back to Saito’s position. As the other man changes position to regain line of sight with Helios, Saito is waiting for him, and his next shot takes the other man down as well.

Saito decides to go back into Torrent’s apartment while Helios decides to take a look outside the garage. Outside they can see members of Death in the Afternoon exchanging fire with men armed with assault rifles.

Saito looks out the window where the shot that brought down Torrent came through. As soon as he sticks his head up, a shot is fired from the building across the street. It goes low, striking the wall instead. However, this sniper is also using electro-thermo rounds, although of a smaller size. The shot is big enough punch through the wall and go through Saito’s armor. Luckily it has spent too much energy to be lethal at that point.

This does give Saito a chance to spot his opponent. Both snipers line up their shots, but Saito gets his off first. His shot is also low, but the .50 caliber round still packs enough punch after going through the wall and body armor, that it kills the sniper.

Helios steps outside the blown out garage door and is immediately hit by a sniper round in the chest. It goes through his armor, but his enhanced musculature helps keep it form being fatal. He goes down nonetheless.

Aware that Helios is down, Saito returns to the garage and based on where Helios was hit, figures where the other sniper is hidden. Another sniper battle ensues, this time ending with Saito’s headshot decapitating the other sniper.

Saito contacts Jarvic to get an REO Meatwagon ambulance for Torrent and Helios. He then speaks to Neil, the leader of Death in the Afternoon. They had driven off the other attackers. They had questioned a survivor that they had captured, and he indicated that they were hired by a tall redhead who wants the team eliminated.

A few minutes later, Riptide and Zen returns. Saito fills them in on what happened. He first assumed it was someone after the chip, but based on what Neil told him, it seems that Alys Grant is trying to tie up some loose ends. Riptide calls Hand who knows nothing about it, but said he would look into the matter.

The rest of the day is spent repairing the damage to their home. They also check in on Torrent and Helios who are both stabilized and doing okay.

May 3rd, 2038

First thing Monday Morning, Riptide gets a call from Hand. It seems Rya Mendez got her old job back at Upstairs Downstairs and went back to work at the Bartholomew School for Advanced Studies. Either she or Jace Grant slipped up, because Alys got wind of what was going on. She then somehow figured out that Rya was the kidnapper, and decided to get some payback against the edgerunners who claimed the matter had been dealt with.

Obviously, this is an issue that cannot be ignored. However, it will have to wait, because the team, at least those not in the hospital, need to get to Oakland to catch an Orbital Air flight to the Crystal Palace. They also have to rethink their protection, as firearms are prohibited on board the orbiting station.

A three-hour drive takes them to the Oakland Spaceport, from where they take a 6 hour flight into orbit. Once in space, they board the Johnson Space Platform, where they await transport to Crystal Palace. Shortly there after, they are on an OTV heading towards the Crystal Palace. About half way through the to hour journey the shuttle shakes and depressurization warning lights go on. Luckily the team paid attention to the preflight safety briefing and were able to find their pressure suits under their seats.

All three are able to get their suits on, but now the shuttle is tumbling through space. Most of the crew is dead, due to a tank that ruptured up near the command cabin. The few crewmen that remain ask if anyone knows how to fix the damaged navigational system. Unfortunately, Riptide, who has a knack for such things, is busy holding down a hospital bed back in Night City. Zen, Saito, and Riptide take a look at the problem, but it is clearly beyond their capabilities.

So instead, they are left to wait. They continue to tumble through space for several hours before a rescue craft is able to arrive, stabilize them, and tow them the rest of the way to Crystal Palace. This gives the team time to contemplate whether the explosion was an unfortunate accident or was someone trying to make sure that shuttle never got to Crystal Palace.

Finally, in the late evening, PST, they arrive. Crystal Palace is a massive cylinder of glass and chrome encircled by numerous rings that rotate, giving the inhabited areas an impressive .7 G.

Inside looks like Las Vegas during its heyday. It’s an endless series of entertainment attractions wrapped in holoscreens and flashing marquees. Less than half of the people are locals, known as Highriders. Most people are visitors, like the team.

They check into their hotel rooms first. Saito looks through his for any listening devices, and discovers one behind a painting. He takes it and places it in Zen’s room, while everyone sets up camp in his room.

They head out and find a nice restaurant where they enjoy a good meal, which they pay for with the credit chip. They then spend the remainder of the evening at the casino. Riptide and Zen lose money at the slots, but Saito comes out ahead at the Black Jack table.

During the course of the evening, Saito notices an Italian man watching him. Zen notices a Chinese woman watching her. Riptide does not notice anyone taking an interest in him. They make no attempt to approach these tails, and instead call it a night and return to their room. They find a message waiting for them to meet in a specified room at 7:00 PM tomorrow.

May 4th 2038

In the morning, there is a knock on Saito’s door. Room service has brought a breakfast on the house. Saito tells the bellhop to enjoy the breakfast him self, and sends him on his way.

Today, they spend the day seeing other areas of the orbiting habitat. They visit the arboretum and check out some of the stores. Saito finds a cyberware store that sells sleek, but expensive orbital crystal cybernetics. He finds a cyberarm that is durable, but light weight, weighing little more than a normal human arm. The price tag is $7,000, but he purchases with the credit chip, to give to Torrent.

While visiting a bar in the afternoon, a man in an Italian suit approaches Riptide, acting as if they have meet before. He comments that it is good to see Riptide again, and offers to shake his hand. Riptide is hesitant at first, but then notices the man palming a piece of paper. Riptide shakes the man’s hand and watches as the man walks away.

Turning back to the bar, he looks at the paper and reads the message. It indicates that the messenger, or whom ever he works for is willing to pay $200,000. They are to meet in a specified room at 6:00 PM today.

They decide to return to Saito’s room to discuss their next move. After considerable deliberation, they decide to go to the meeting at 6:00 PM.

At the appointed time, they arrive at the room. A tall blonde Scandinavian woman opens the door. She escorts them into the suite, where another woman, nearly a twin, awaits. Riptide notices that they are both carrying flechette pistols.

A man emerges from one of the bedrooms and greets them. He says his name is Karl, and he speaks in a light German accent. He asks to see the chip, which they produce. He places it in a special chip reader, and after a few keystrokes, watches blueprints flash across the screen. Satisfied, he produces a credit chip and places it in another chip reader. The display indicates that the chip has $200,000 on it. He turns the chip over to Riptide.

When the team begins to question him about what is on the chip, he seems surprised that they know so little about what they are involved in. He explains that he works for the European Space Agency, and that the blueprints come from NASA. Any further questions are deflected, and the team makes their exit.

Realizing that NASA, as it appears their original buyers were, will be vary displeased to learn they sold the blueprints to the ESA, they try to book immediate transport off of Crystal Palace. Unfortunately, the next shuttle does not leave for another three and a half hours and their NASA meeting is in one half hour. They have to figure out how to lay low in an enclosed environment.

They decide the best thing to do is hide in plain sight. They decide to stick to populated areas where there would be too many witnesses. So they find themselves milling about in the Palace’s main shopping center. They keep an eye out for anyone coming their way and always keep each other in sight.

Despite the vigilance, Riptide is startled to find the black clad Japanese man standing behind him. The man points out that it is now 8:00 PM, and that Riptide failed to show for their meeting at 7:00 PM. The man demands to know why the team failed to show. Riptide admits that they have had another offer for more money.

Needless to say, the man is quite displeased. He asks if the deal has gone through yet, to which Riptide falsely replies that it has not. The man berates the team for accepting a free ride to Crystal Palace, free lodging, and a $10,000 credit chip as a goodwill gesture, only to then betray him as soon as someone comes along flashing more money. He indicates that he awaits the team’s decision, but if they do not go through with his deal, he expects to be reimbursed for all of the money they have spent.

The team then spends considerable time deciding what to do next. Ultimately they accept that their bed has already been made. Since the ESA has the data chip, they are unlikely to sell it back. Even if they did, who’s to say they have not already copied it. So they go to the room that was designated for their meeting with NASA and explain that they have taken the other offer. The Japanese man demands and receives reimbursement for the money they used. He then inquires to whom they sold it to. Riptide gives him the hotel room number. The man produces a pocket computer and looks up the room. He then chuckles and wishes the team a safe ride home.

May 5th, 2038

After an “over-night” flight, they find themselves back on terra firma at the Oakland Spaceport. By the early afternoon they are back in Night City. Bothered by the Japanese man’s chuckle, Riptide immediately tries to cash the credit chip he got from the ESA. His suspicion is realized when the chip comes up empty.

Once they are settled back in, Riptide attempts to contact Hand, but finds that the normal contact number has been disconnected. They stop at the Forlorn Hope and talk to the Professor. He indicates that word on the street is that someone turned up the heat on Hand and that he has split town.

Finding themselves in the hole financially from the NASA/ESA deal, and now without their main contact for corporate jobs, the team returns home and begins the work of repairing their headquarters.

May 6th – May 10th, 2038

The team starts working their street contacts to find out what the story is regarding the contract that was put out on them. It seems that no one is currently out to get them. Perhaps Alys felt she made her point with the last attack on their home. They also find out that Rya Mendez has been deported, and that there is a contract out on Hand. They also continue work on their home repairs.

With two of their members hospitalized, a lucrative deal botched, their home trashed, and their corporate contact on the run, things haven’t looked this bad since they first got to Night City. On the plus side, it can’t get any worse. Maybe.

The team gets about six weeks of down time between missions. During this time Saito and Zen quite their part time jobs and begin street salvage operations. Helios puts time in as well for the new business.

April 6, 2038

Riptide gets a call from Hand indicating that he has a job offer and to meet him at the Cloud 9 restaurant. Riptide promptly shows up, and over a rather expensive meal he learns that a corp named Alys is looking to hire for a job that pays $10,000. If he wants it, he should show up with the team at the Night City Fine Arts Museum.

Riptide contacts the team and they arrive at the Museum at 11:00 PM. Hand is there waiting for them and escorts them into a closed section of the museum. Alys, a tall slender red-headed woman in an expensive suit and wearing even more expensive jewelry, is waiting for them. She explains that her son failed to come home from school that afternoon. The school is a secure facility. The staff does not know how he was taken. Her son’s name is Jace and he is nine years old. There has been no attempt to demand a ransom. She wants the team to find him and bring him back safely. There is a $1,000 bonus if they deal with the kidnappers.

The team presses her for more information, but she is not forthcoming. She refuses to give them any personal information, including her last name. She does indicate that the school he was kidnapped from has been told they would be coming and to cooperate with the investigating team.

The team’s first priority is the safe return of her son. The second is that there must be no media involvement what so ever. They agree and she gives them a picture of Jace as well as a $1,000 cash advance.

The team returns home where Zen has Torrent hack the computer system for the Bartholomew School for Advanced Studies. He finds vendor information for IntCop, the security service there and Upstairs Downstairs, which provides custodial and food services. He then finds a student record for Jace Grant. His legal guardian is listed as Alys Grant, living at 1705 Cloud Villa. He finds the faculty records and learns that the school has a new teacher this year, Isaac Hussein. As he is looking, a trace program gets the jump on him and he is forced to leave. He tries to return a short time later but finds that the school’s computer has been taken offline.

April 7, 2038

In the early morning, Riptide, Torrent, and Zen go to the school to meet with the headmaster, Ms. White. They find that the school is located in a poor part of town. It is not the Combat Zone, but its hardly downtown either. A security fence with a manned gate surrounds the entire property. They are told by the guards to check in any weapons. They give Zen an odd look as she turns over her AK-47.

With that business taken care of they are allowed onto the property. The primary school facility is located in the center. On the west side is the dorms for students who live on sight as well as a music center. On the east side is an athletics field along with a large field house and gym.

They are escorted into the schools administration office where they meet Ms. White, a grey-haired woman in her 60’s. She has a strong maternal instinct and refers to the students as “my children.”

She indicates that they have never lost a student before. There is a camera on the gate, but know indication of Jace leaving through it. The fence is alarmed, and was never set off. Jace had his last class that ended at 4:00 PM and he has not been seen since.

Zen inquires about his last class and Ms. White indicates that it was Dr. Phil Carry’s corporate law class. They wish to question him, but she says that he called in sick today. They ask if he calls in a lot and she says no, but the frequency of his absences has been on the increase lately. Other faculty have also remarked about his seeming to be nervous and agitated lately.

The team returns home. Torrent begins to research Dr. Carry while the others attend to day jobs. Dr. Carry has no criminal record and has been employed at the school for several years. Prior to that he taught at a University in Houston.

At 7:00 PM, Torrent, Saito and Zen go to Dr. Carry’s home. Zen and Torrent take the elevator, while Saito takes the stairs. Torrent and Zen knock on the door and Phil Carry answers. They discuss Jace, whom Phil describes an average student. The only thing that struck him as odd, was Jace’s recent interest in parental rights laws.

Phil’s wife then bursts forth from the bedroom, wearing a gown and tiara, interrupting their interview. She refers to the team as her subjects and seats herself before them in a stately fashion. Embarrassed, Phil escorts his wife back into the bedroom.

He explains that she used to be a computer engineer who was always a fan of online role-playing games. However, while playing one that used a brain-dance interface, she suffered a sever trauma. Since then, her ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality has been greatly diminished. He suspects that someone planted a malicious virus in the game that attacked her mentally. He has had to stay home frequently as of late because her condition has been deteriorating.

Before leaving, they ask him about Isaac Hussein. Phil explains that Isaac is a psychology teacher who has a fascination with street culture. Beyond that, Isaac seems like at normal person.

Torrent places a call to the number that Alys gave them. He leaves a voicemail message indicating that he wishes to speak to her.

April 8, 2038

Riptide returns to the school in the morning and begins to watch video footage of the gate camera. He keeps track of all of the incoming and outgoing traffic and compares it to the traffic on other days. It takes him all morning and well into the afternoon, but eventually he spots a Upstairs/Downstairs truck that made a non-routine visit to the school the day Jace disappeared. Furthermore, it leaves shortly before it’s discovered that Jace is missing.

Torrent does some more research into Alys Grant. He learns she has a middle management position at Infotech. Comparing the average salary for a woman in her position to the likely lively expenses that she has to maintain her lifestyle, Torrent suspects that Alys has an additional source of income.

Based on the information that Riptide had learned, he and Zen go to Upstairs/Downstairs. They speak with a manager there and learn that the non-routine visit to the school was to pick up some floor equipment for maintenance. The driver of that truck was Rya Mendez. They ask to speak with her, but the manager indicates that Rya has resigned her position. He does however, have her home address.

Around 7:00 PM, Helios and Zen go to 3722 Brownstone, the listed address for Rya Mendez. Interestingly enough, the homes on Brownstone are in fact Brownstones. They knock on the door, and after several locks are released, a gray haired woman in her late 60s answers. She says her name is Marta and she owns the home. Rya rents a room from her. She left this morning, and Marta has not seen her since. She knows little about Rya’s personal life and little useful information is gained from her.

The two continue to stake out the home waiting for Rya’s return. At 9:00 PM, a man in a trench coat pulls up on a motorcycle. He goes to the door and knocks. Marta answers and the two talk for a few second. Marta disappears back into the house and returns a few moments later with a couple of envelopes, and gives them to her visitor. He returns to his motorcycle and drives off.

While Helios maintains watch over the home, Zen tails the man back to downtown. He heads into the The Afterlife, and Zen follows. She watches at the bar while he drinks his beer alone. He then reluctantly pulls out the two envelopes. He opens the first, looks at it briefly, and then rips it up. The second is a letter, which he reads intently. When he finishes reading the letter, he is all smiles and happily puts the letter back in his jacket. He orders a shot, which he quickly downs, then he is back on his motorcycle.

Zen follows him deep into the Combat Zone. She stays alert as possible, as there are fewer more dangerous places to be after dark then the Combat Zone. She tails him to and old apartment building. It is dark inside, as there appears to be no power anywhere on this city block. She calls in, and Saito indicates that he is on his way to back her up. While she is waiting she pulls out the torn pieces of mail that she snatched off of the bar before leaving the Afterlife. She pieces it together and sees that it’s a bank loan rejection letter addressed to a Nick Desmond. The address is 3722 Brownstone. Apparently, Marta has another roommate.

When Saito arrives, they go into the building. The hallways are pitch black. Saito leads the way using his infrared optics to see. They head up to the upper level, and begin listening at doors. Most of the rooms appear to be occupied by squatters. When the come to a door, beyond which they here the sound of things being push around. They knock.

There is a moment of silence and then a voice responds, wanting to know who they were. They ask to be let in, but the voice refuses. He does admit to being Nick Desmond. Questioning him through the door reveals that he pays Marta a small monthly fee to use her home as a mailing address. She gets his mail, takes his messages, and if anyone asks, will say he lives there. He states it’s a lot easier to get a job and be taken seriously in general, if people think you have a permanent address.

Upon learning this, they head back to Marta’s. Its about midnight, but they don’t let this stop them from banging on her door. Eventually she answers. They demand to know about Rya. At first Marta is evasive, but Zen explains she knows Rya doesn’t actually live there. Marta admits that she runs this service for a number of clients, as it provides a nice income to get her through her late years. She is still hesitant to reveal any information about Rya, until Zen explains that Rya may be involved in the kidnapping of a child. Upon learning this, Marta relents. She goes through her records and says she has a note indicating that Rya lives in the 12th Street Alley, Hillview. Hillview is the same part of town as the Bartholomew School for Advanced studies.

April 9th, 2038

In the early morning hours, the team reunites, except for Torrent, and head down to Hillview. Unfortunately, the streets are not labeled, and there is no way to identify which street is 12th Street. They have already drawn the attention of the local street punks, so Zen approaches one. He is naturally unhelpful until she gives him $50. He then gladly points the way to the 12th St. Alley.

The team moves in. The first thing they notice is the smell of someone cooking meth, or whatever the latest variation is, that’s popular this week. They skip the shack that is the source of that smell and visit the next one. They wake up a woman and question her about Rya and the boy. The woman indicates that the Rya lives in the last shack on the left.

A thunderstorm rolls in and begins to dump rain into the alley, as they close in on their target. Helios knocks on the door. This is followed by a rapid shuffling sound from within. Not wanting to take any chances, Riptide kicks in the door and sees Rya Mendez attempting to hide the boy under the bed.

While, Helios and Saito stand watch outside, Zen and Riptide question the woman. She says that she moved here from Colombia 10 years ago. While she was working at a hospital, she was paid to take part in some genetic testing. A short time later, she was approached by a doctor asking if she would be willing to be a surrogate mother. There was a woman who wanted to have children but was unable. In exchange for her services, she would be given a nice apartment to live in. Since she was living on the street at the time, she agreed.

As the time grew close to give birth, she began to regret her decision, and wanted to keep the baby. She hired a lawyer, but learned that the contract she signed gave her no legal claim to the child. When the baby was born, it was taken from her immediately, before she could even see him.

She began to snoop around, trying to learn who had the child. But then, shortly there after, she was fired from the hospital. Her apartment was then taken away and she was back on the street. The contract entitled her to the apartment only while she was caring for the child.

Despite these setbacks, she continued to look for her son. Eventually, she found him at the Bartholomew School for Advanced Studies. She took a job at Upstairs/Downstairs, and got a position at the school as soon as one opened up. Her intention was simply to be close to Jace. However, she soon realized that he was very unhappy at home. He preferred to stay at school rather than have to go home to a mother he said didn’t care for him.

Eventually, Rya could not bear it any longer and told Jace who she was. The two then formulated a plan to escape to Colombia. Rya has tickets for a flight that leaves later today. She begs the edgerunners to let her and her son go. It is clear that Jace would rather stay in this shack with Rya, rather than return to his much nicer home with Alys.

Their pleas fall on deaf ears, however. Zen reminds Rya that she signed a contract and that a deal is a deal. While she closely watches Rya, Riptide snatches up the boy and carries him out the waiting van at the end of the ally. They leave Rya to her sobbing as they drive out of Hillview with the boy. Riptide places a call to Hand, who is very pleased to hear that they have found the boy. He asks if they took care of the kidnappers. Riptide lies and says the kidnappers were just some punks who were looking for a ransom, but they had been eliminated. Satisfied with the answer, Hand has them meet outside the Forlorn Hope at 6:00 AM.

Since 6:00 AM is only a couple of hours away, they decide to stay mobile, rather than return home. Zen tries to feed and console the boy, but he wants no part of any of it.

At the appointed time, they arrive at the Forlorn Hope. Two cabs arrive. Hand steps out of the first one, and asks them to turn over the boy. They do, and he escorts the boy into the second cab, which immediately drives away. He then returns to the first cab, and gets a credit chip from Alys who waits inside. He gives the team their pay, and then leaves in the first cab.

With the deal done, they returned home. All in all, it was a good mission. They found the boy and got their pay. Not losing any of their vehicles, or even having to fire a shot, meant this mission cost them very little. Unless of course you count the pieces of their humanity that they had to cash in.

Usually the team gets a few weeks or more between major actions, but this time there is no rest for the wicked. Only two weeks after the Southside Scandal, another opportunity comes knocking.

February 3, 2038

Riptide is contacted by Hand who has a job offer. He introduces Riptide to Janet Towlend and Logan Bilstants. They want to hire the team to transport an unspecified cargo from the Oakland Spaceport back to Night City. The cargo is set to arrive tomorrow night via an Orbital Air shuttle. All they need to do is take the provided cargo van to pick it up, and return the van with the unspecified cargo back to Night City. If all goes well, it should be an easy payday of $8,000.

The team meets the two corps at the Forlorn Hope and pick up the van. It turns out that the man providing the wheels for this operation is none other than “Hollywood” Henderson. He shows off the van, with armored sides, vehicle link, and super-charged engine. Most interesting is the feature in the pack: a sealable biohazard containment vault. This gets the team wondering about the unspecified cargo that Janet described as “slightly illegal.”

They take the van back to Jimmy Two Teeth’s, to check it out. Helios, not surprisingly, finds it equipped with a Lowjack tracker and disables it. They then take it back home and get ready for the following day’s run.

February 4, 2038

The team, minus Torrent, heads to Oakland. Helios and Saito are in the van, while Zen and Riptide follow behind on their motorcycles. The drive takes three hours, and at 8:00 PM, they find themselves at the Oakland Spaceport.

Helios drives up to the cargo pickup gate and gives the papers that Janet and Logan gave him to the guard. The guard directs them to a parking area he refers to as the “interceptor lot.” It is located directly off of one of the airstrips. The van is allowed to pass through, but the two cycles are not allowed to follow. They decide to wait outside the gate.

Helios and Saito sit in the van in the interceptor lot for nearly an hour when they see the descending lights of the orbital shuttle. Everything seems to be going smoothly, right up to the moment that the shuttle slams into the tarmac and begins to slide sideways down the runway. When the wreckage finally comes to a halt, Helios and Saito drive up in the van. They get out but wait alongside the vehicle.

The passenger access hatch on the shuttle bursts open as two men in Metal Gear leap onto the tarmac, guns at their shoulders. Saito attempts to talk to them, but they immediately open fire. Luckily the Helios and Saito had the open armored van doors to protect them. They return fire, but most of their shots bounce off of the two solo’s heavy armor.

Hearing what is happening over the radio, Zen and Riptide drive along the perimeter fence to get as close to the action as possible.

The armored doors can only take so much damage as the solos empty their entire magazines at Helios and Saito. Saito’s door fails and falls off the hinges. He is hit several times, the shots ripping into his armor. One round strikes him in the leg, smashing the bone within.

Helios gets back into the van and guns the engine. He attempts to run down the two solos, but they jump out of the way with lightning fast reflexes. Helios is able to slam on the brakes before colliding with the downed shuttle.

The solo on Helios’ side continues to open fire on the van. The other solo moves towards Saito, who was left behind when Helios took off. The solo’s A-80 rifle is empty however, so he pulls a knife and converges on the prone Saito.

Zen and Riptide get as close as they can along the perimeter fence. Zen begins to cut through the fence while Riptide takes a few shots at Saito’s opponent with his ramjet pistols. Its at the far end of the pistol’s range, but one shot finds its mark and momentarily rocks the solo back. Saito is able to use this opportunity to grapple the solo’s legs and pull him to the ground.

Helios uses his grenade launcher and fires a flechette grenade into his target’s chest. The spikes drive into the man’s armor, but he stays standing. Helios presses the advantage and engages the solo in hand to hand. Using his wolvers, he is able to get through the man’s compromised armor and take him down.

Saito continues to struggle against his opponent. The two are on the ground in a grappling match. With Saito’s broken leg, it’s only a matter of time before the man gets the upper hand. Finally, in a desperation move, he takes a detonation cap, arms it, and forces it into his opponent’s armor. The cap detonates with in the confined space of the Metal Gear armor. Despite multiple ruptured organs, the solo stills lives, but collapses unconscious.

Riptide, who has taken over fence-cutting duties, tears a hole big enough in the fence for Zen to get her motorcycle through. As she races to her friends’ aid, the sound of sirens in the distance begins, and emergency crews begin to move toward the scene.

While Zen checks on Saito, Helios rushes into the shuttle and begins to look around. All of the passengers and crew are dead, many by gunfire. He finds the cargo hold, where he discovers a hole blown out on one side.

He also finds an open crate that matches the serial number on the voucher he was given. There is a small hole punctured in one side. Was it a bullet hole, or perhaps a piece of orbital debris that punctured the shuttle during reentry?

Inside the crate is an open case containing slots for three large gas cylinders. The first slot contains a cylinder with a hole punched in it. It appears to be empty. The second slot contains an intact cylinder. The third slot is missing its cylinder.

Helios now also hears the approaching sirens and hoists the one intact cylinder over his shoulder and heads out the shuttle. Zen already has helped Saito into the van, as Helios runs up and places the cylinder in the van’s biohazard vault. They make a quick exit, bursting through the tear in the fence that Riptide had made.

Riptide places a call to Hand who gets him in touch with Janet. She explains that the cylinders contain an experimental combat drug called H454, designed to heighten awareness and reflexes. It is currently in gas form to help control how much is dispensed. In high quantities it causes rages and paranoia.

She also explains that she had three solos on the shuttle, guarding the cargo: Jackson, Spender, and Weston. Her description of them matches the Metal Gear clad solos.

Apparently, one cylinder was compromised and the three were exposed to a massive overdose of the gas. In normal humans, the affect will only last a few hours. Unfortunately, due to bio-implants, nanite surgery, and chemical alterations, the three had far from normal physiologies. Early tests indicated that on such an individual, the effect maybe permanent.

Janet indicates that the team must account for the third cylinder if they are to get paid. But, she also understands that the mission now involves more work than they contracted for. She offers them a $2,000 bonus if they bring back the last cylinder intact, and another $1,000 bonus if they can bring back Weston alive. All of those enhancements make for an expensive loss each time they lose one of these guys.

Zen and Helios drive Saito to the closest Oakland hospital. They give the med techs just enough time to put Saito on a gurney before they peel out of the parking lot.

In the mean time, Riptide drives around the perimeter of the Spaceport on his motorcycle, looking for signs of the third solo. He finds nothing of interest though, and rendezvous with Helios and Zen.

The three take another tour around the facility, hoping that three sets of eyes are better than one. Sure enough, along the west side of the perimeter they find another tear in the fence. The darkness makes tracking difficult though and they see no sign of the solo’s passing.

Gambling that he may have went through the near by woods, they drive along the edge of the tree line. On the far side of the woods, they do spot recent tracks. But those tracks are short lived as they soon come to an asphalt road. Not finding any tracks on the other side, they assume that their target must have followed the road.

February 5, 2038

Zen and Riptide turn their motorcycles south, while Helios takes the doorless van north. A couple of miles up the road, Helios spots an unconscious man lying in the ditch. He reports it to the other two, but keeps going, not wanting to lose any more ground.

Zen and Riptide turn around and head back north, eventually coming upon the person. Zen is able to wake him up. The man, named Ed Morris, was driving his Mitsubishi Sedan down the road when he saw a man waving for help. He pulled to a stop but did not open the window in case it was a trap. Unfortunately, the window was of little use as the solo punched clean through the glass and yanked Ed out of his car. The last thing he remembers is getting hurled into the ditch and left to watch his car go north before he lost consciousness.

Zen and Riptide start to head north, but after a few minutes, Zen gets an idea and turns back around, Riptide follows. They find Ed still along side the road holding his cell phone. Zen asks if his stolen car has a lowjack system, which Ed affirms. He is currently waiting on a return call. As if on cue the phone rings and Ed talks to the voice on the other end. When the conversation ends, he indicates that his car has come to a stop in the small town of Youngston. Zen offers him a ride back to his car, which he accepts.

Helios, who is almost a full hour ahead of the other two pulls into Youngston and begins looking for the stolen car. As he searches, he sees a commotion over at the sheriff’s office. Driving over there he finds the stolen car along with several locals looking like they are getting ready for war. When he inquires about what is going on, he is told that some lunatic drove up, shot a couple of cops, and is now holed up in there with a cylinder he dragged in.

Helios convinces the posse to wait until his companions arrive and not attempt to storm the place alone. They agree, and a little over a half an hour later, Zen and Riptide arrive. Zen in turn convinces the locals to wait outside and let them handle the problem. The locals reluctantly agree again.

Helios heads to the front entrance, Zen to the back entrance, and Riptide to the side entrance. Helios finds his door unlocked. Riptide’s door is locked, but he quickly defeats it with his lock picks. Zen finds her door locked, but is unable to shim the latch with her knife.

Riptide starts to investigate inside the door when Zen convinces him to switch places with her. While they play musical doors, Helios heads in. The lights are on, but nobody’s home. He clears the reception area, and moves down a central hall. He then attempts to move into the holding area but is brought down by a hail of gunfire from the waiting solo.

Hearing the gunfire, Zen rushes in to find Helios’ position. Riptide runs to the back door and goes to work on the lock.

Zen pulls Helios clear and then begins exchanging gunfire the solo that is holed up in a doorway. Both expend their ammo with little effect. Zen works to switch magazines while her opponent drops the rifle he was using and grabs a smaller caliber rifle.

Riptide picks the lock and rushes in, only to be greeted by an anti-personnel mine that is wired to the door. As he picks himself up of the ground and scraps off bits of shredded armor, he mutters to himself that he should have anticipated that the solo would have rigged the one door he couldn’t watch.

The firefight between Zen and the solo begins again. The new rifle that the solo is using is of a smaller caliber, but Zen quickly realizes that it is loaded with armor piercing bullets as the burst from the rifle begins to shred her armor. A heavy user of AP rounds herself; she realizes she does not like them nearly as much when she is on the receiving end.

Riptide comes around the corner on the other side of the solo and opens fire. Unfortunately, the solo has himself so well positioned that he is protected from both of them. Even though both the solo and Zen are exchanging AP rounds, he has better armor and the better position. Riptide decides to run down the hallway, leaving himself exposed, but denying the solo his cover advantage as well. Riptide’s ploy pays off, as he and Zen are able to bring the solo down in the crossfire.

Zen checks on the solo, who is still alive. She uses some handcuffs she finds to secure him. She is also able to identify him as Weston.

Meanwhile, Riptide goes looking for the canister. He checks everywhere, leaving only one room behind a closed door. Apparently not learning his lesson from the last door he went through, he marches in and is hit by shrapnel as the mine strapped to the canister explodes. Both and Zen are exposed, but they are able to get to open air with little more that some nausea and lightheadedness.

They put Weston and Helios into the van. They entrust their motorcycles to the keeping of the grateful locals. At 5:00 AM, they find themselves back in Night City. They arrange an exchange at the Forlorn Hope. They are paid the $8,000, plus the $1,000 bonus for bringing back Weston alive. The two then drop Helios off at the Hospital, and return home for some much needed rest.

After the job with Adam Smasher, the team gets a few weeks to cool it’s heels. They are forced to renegotiate their deal with Death in the Afternoon, due to the fact that they had yet to get their salvage business started despite the many months of occupying their home in the Combat Zone. Zen is able to land a job as an entry-level investigator for InfoComp, allowing her to quit the security gig. Saito acquires the Arasaka sniper rifle that he purchased from Dollar Bill. Jarvic develops a new reflex-enhancing drug called Super Fly, and gets Riptide to help him sell it. Helios is able to find a used tow truck for the business, but it requires some repair work before it can be used.

January 13th, 2038

Jarvic is on duty at REO Meatwagon when a call comes in that a trauma card was activated in the Combat Zone. He and his team mount up in their AV-4 and head down to the south side. There they find a man lying on the sidewalk bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. He is on the brink of death, but Jarvic is able to resuscitate him and they transport him back to Meatwagon HQ. The card account indicates that the man is Alphie Lazado, but a homemade driver’s license in his wallet lists him as The Manic Hispanic. Jarvic remembers the team referring to such a man and contacts them.

The team, however, shows little interest in looking into the matter, so Jarvic does some of his own investigating. Alphie is homeless, but his card is paid for by his brother Hector Lazado, who lives in Miami.

January 14th, 2038

Jarvic is able to track down Hector on the phone. Hector says his brother has always had some mental issues, but never was on any drugs, illicit or otherwise. Alphie has always refused Hector’s help, but did agree to carry the trauma card that Hector pays for. He then indicates that he will fly to Night City at his first opportunity.

January 15th-18th, 2038

Alphie is stable and therefore transferred to one of Night City’s public clinics. The team continues to go about their usual routines.

January 19th, 2038

Saito goes to the clinic to visit Alphie, who is still in a coma. There he finds Hector and Jarvic. Hector cannot understand why anyone would try to kill Alphie. He is also upset that the Night City Police Department will make no attempt to investigate the shooting of a vagrant, as it’s a fairly common occurrence. The team graciously agrees to investigate the shooting of their friend for only half of their usual fee.

January 20th, 2038

The team rents another van from Renta-Robo. The team travels into the Combat Zone to investigate the shooting. Their first stop is the Mediterranean, inside Wire Cult territory. They speak to a squatter there named Artie who explains that three months back, some speedsters moved in that kept harassing Alphie. He eventually moved out. Artie indicates that Alphie has found a new home inside Hellion territory called The Jungle.

The team then travels to The Jungle, which is located only four blocks from where Alphie was shot. The Jungle is the incomplete foundation of an office building that was started back before the Combat Zone was the Combat Zone. Two small tent cities have sprung up inside. Riptide, Torrent, Saito, and Jarvic head on in to look around. They speak to some locals who indicate that a number of people have been getting sick lately, breaking out in rashes and sores. Many people have become irritable, and the incidents of violence within the camp have increased. Also, a few claim to have seen deformed rats and birds.

Jarvic convinces some of the sick to allow him to take blood samples. He also takes a sample of the water from a small pool the locals use for drinking. The pool is supplied by a city water main that they have tapped into. He then calls Hector and asks him to have the doctors test Alphie’s blood as well.

Up top, Helios and Zen spot a vehicle circle around the foundation. The occupants do not wear uniforms, but their demeanor says security men.

Saito, Riptide, and Jarvic go to a ripperdock named Trapper John who tests both the blood and the water sample. The water comes back clean, but the blood has traces of an unknown toxin. For a fee, Trapper gets the samples to a man named Dexter, who he says will be able to isolate and identify the chemical.

The three then head to the scene where the shooting took place. Talking to a couple of witnesses reveals that Alphie had charged a couple of Hellions in a fit of rage, and so they gunned him down.

Back at The Jungle, Zen notices the reflection from a camera lens from the second story of an abandoned building on the other side of the camp. She stealthily makes her way over to the building and enters. Unfortunately, she fails to spot the active infrared sensor placed on the doorway. Sneaking up the stairway, she finds the room beyond the window she had seen. Looking within, she sees a man monitoring a video recorder aimed at The Jungle.

She then decides to take a look at the room across the hall and finds herself with a gun to her head. The man holding it demands she hand over her weapons. As she does so she attempts to stun the man with her gang-jazzler, but it fails to penetrate the man’s armor. A struggle ensues that is quickly joined by the other man who was working the camera.

They quickly get the upper hand, but then the other members of the team come charging into the building. They over take the two men and disarm them. Questioning the two men reveals that they are contracted with Petrochem to record and monitor the activities in The Jungle. The purpose of their observations is unknown to them. They simply record the video and once a week turn it over to a corp named Robert Page at Petrochem. They too have observed men patrolling the area and the two assume that they are Petrochem guards. After drugging them with some hallucinogenic drugs, the team leaves them be.

January 21st 2038

The team gets the results on the chemical agent found in the blood samples. It is identified as a chemical byproduct created during the production of DBZ, a pesticide manufactured by Petrochem. The chemical was manufactured in Night City up until 2028. The chemical is a mutagenic and psychoactive chemical. Symptoms in humans include rashes and sores as well as feelings of paranoia and fits of anger. Alphie’s blood test also indicates the chemical is in his blood stream.

Torrent does some data mining through the Net and learns that Petrochem had attempted to purchase the property that The Jungle is located on back in 2029, but failed. The City kept it for development instead. In 2031 the city began construction of an office building there, but Petrochem sued on the basis of unfair bidding practices. The project was then abandoned as the Combat Zone absorbed the neighborhood.

The team theorizes that Petrochem had illegally dumped the chemical waste on that site. When that property ended up being zoned for commercial development, Petrochem attempted to by the property to keep the illegal dumping a secret. The chemical was likely well buried, but the digging of the foundation may have exposed it.

January 22, 2038

The team decides to take this theory to Jim Stacey, a Network 54 reporter known for breaking open corporate scandals. Jim is a fan favorite amongst 54 viewers, but has made so many corporate enemies he never sleeps in the same place twice.

Jim meets them at the food court in the Mallplex and listens to their story. He is interested, but points out that their evidence is circumstantial. In order to run such a story, he would need more proof. This could be either a sample of the chemical recovered from the site or copies of Petrochem records indicating that they had dumped on the site. If they can get such proof however, the network will pay them $5,000 for exclusive rights to the story.

They decide to go after the Petrochem records. Torrent begins to prepare to make a run on the Petrochem data fortress, which is likely to be a very dangerous endeavor. Not only is the Petrochem data fortress large, but also likely packs some very serious and highly illegal black ICE.

Then to everyone’s surprise, Helios indicates that he has called in a marker with an old contact that works at Petrochem. He gives Torrent a set of Net coordinates located inside the Petrochem data fortress.

Torrent dives into the Net and approaches the fortress wall nearest the coordinates. His Wraith program allows him to pass through the data wall undetected. He easily finds the file containing waste disposal records. He begins to decrypt the file protection as he finds himself surrounded by anti-intrusion programs that have yet to detect him. He then begins to download the file, while nervously keeping on eye on the programs. But by the time any of the programs begin to detect his presence, he has the file downloaded and makes his exit.

January 23rd, 2038

The team turns the information over to Jim Stacey, who satisfied, pays them the $5,000. The team collects the money, and informs Hector of the circumstances of his brother’s shooting. A short time later, Network 54 breaks the story of the south side scandal involving Petrochem’s illegal dumping of toxic chemicals. Jim Stacey reports the story, from an undisclosed location.

November 6th, 2037

Zen and Helios are hanging out at the rebuilt Forlorn Hope on Friday night. There isn’t much action, though most patrons are happy just to have their favorite watering hole back up and running. Early in the evening, they are approached by a tall man, with dark grey hair, wearing a rumpled business suit and carrying a brief case. He asks them, in a Russian accent, if there is a back door out of the place, and they point him in the direction of the back alley door. He then immediately heads for that door.

Zen and Helios take a few moments to decide if they are going to let their curiosity get the best of them. Ultimately it does, and they head out the alley door as well. In the alley, they find the man to be the very recent recipient of two bullets to the chest. A man in a suit searches through the dead man’s pockets while another individual stands watch. They both are armed with silenced pistols. At the end of the alley, a black sedan waits.

Zen and Helios demand to know what is going on. The standing man reveals an ID and states that they are members of the SovOil Internal Security Unit, and that this is an internal corporate matter, therefore no business of the edge runners. The two men question them, demanding to know what he did inside the bar. Zen and Helios tell them the truth, detailing their brief run in with the now dead man. The other two seem satisfied with the answer, but not satisfied with their search. Eventually, they take the brief case, get into their sedan, and drive off.

The two edge runners return to the bar and explain to the Professor what has happened. He indicates that he will call a meat wagon to clean up the mess. It then suddenly occurs to Zen that whatever the men were looking for may still be in the alley. She and Helios begin to search the small but cluttered alley. Eventually, Helios’ dumpster diving proves fruitful as he finds a data disk with the SovOil logo on it.

They return home and ask Torrent to take a look at the disk. It is password protected, but Torrent cracks it with minimal effort. The next obstacle proves more challenging however. It seems that the entire contents of the disk are in Russian, which none of them speak. A quick stop at the local chipware shop remedies that problem, however, as Helios and Torrent each purchase a Russian language skill chip. Helios also splurges on a photographic memory skill chip.

Back home, Torrent begins to peruse the contents of the data disk. Download records indicate that the information on the disk was taken from a SovOil mainframe here in Night City. The information was downloaded using a terminal belonging to a S.I. Servinoya. The content of the actual data includes product testing reports, security assignments and troop movements, as well as the geological survey results for a plot of land in Alaska. Torrent knows enough about geology to know that the last bit of information could be quite valuable to a competitor of SovOil.

November 7th, 2037

Riptide is at the Forlorn Hope when he sees a man speak to the Professor, who then points Riptide out. The man approaches Riptide and asks if he knows a couple of Asian individuals, one an attractive female, the other a muscular male. Knowing that the man is referring to Zen and Helios, he inquiries as to who this person is. The man introduces himself as Gil Braham, an employee of Petrochem. The two beat around the issue a bit before it becomes clear that the main topic of discussion is the SovOil data disk. Riptide confirms that his compatriots do indeed have the disk and would be willing to sell it. A price of $20,000 is agreed upon and the Nero Club downtown is settled on as the location for the exchange.

Riptide returns home and shares the news. It would be easy money, but a couple of issues are considered. One is would SovOil be willing to pay to have the data returned, and how did Gil know they have the disk? If Petrochem knows they have it, does Kerosov also?

Riptide contacts the local SovOil office and asks to speak to someone in their internal security branch. He is put in touch with a Dmitri Yablonov. Riptide offers to sell the data back to them for $40,000, but the security man says he is not interested at that price and hangs up.

With Petrochem now being their only option, they plan for the meeting scheduled for 8:00 PM. They decide to arrive early, with Zen, Helios, and Riptide sitting at a table waiting for Gil. Saito will wait at another table near by. Torrent will remain outside and act as a scout.

They travel to the Nero Club, each on their own motorcycle. They arrive about 7:30 PM and put their plan into action. They choose a table near the back corner of the club. Due to the upscale nature of the club and the prohibition against any weapons bigger than pistols, the team is forced to go in lightly armed and armored.

Gil arrives promptly at 8:00 PM with two others in tow. One flashes a security badge at the doorman, allowing the three to enter without being checked for weapons. They look around a bit until they spot the three at the table. They approach and Gil sits down along with one of his companions. The other one, the one who flashed the ID, remains standing.

First they make a little small talk, discussing how Gil found them. Turns out Gil was on his was to meet Severnoya at the Forlorn Hope when he say SovOil agents approaching. He remained a block away and watched events unfold. He observed Zen and Helios search the alley afterwards and discover something which he guessed to be the data disk.

Gil asks to see the disk, which Riptide turns over to him. Gil then gives it to his sitting companion who takes the disk and plugs it into a small disk reader. He then jacks into the reader via interface plug, and goes silent. After several seconds, he nods to Gil who is turns over the money to Riptide.

About this time, Torrent spots a black van pull up about a block away, turning its lights out, but leaving the engine running. He radios in to the rest of the team. Gil sends his man to check it out. The solo steps outside briefly and then returns reporting that the van belongs to SovOil.

Gil decides its time to leave, but the team is concerned that SovOil is simply waiting for them to step outside. They then begin formulating a diversion plan in which some would exit out the back while others would exit out the front. They are about to execute their plan when suddenly there is a loud “pop!” Many people in the bar cry out in pain, some, including Saito and Gil’s Netrunner, begin to have seizures. Everyone else suffers from sever headaches and muscle tremors. Cyber-eyes cease to function and those with skill chips cannot access them. Everyone except Gil and his Solo seem affected. At the same time, outside, the black van takes off towards the bar, squealing around the corner and coming to a stop by the back alley. Torrent watches as three men exit the side of the van into the alley, and another three exit the back of the van and head toward the main entrance. The men are in full tactical gear and are armed with assault rifles.

The team, Gil, and his men, all move toward the front of the bar. There is no door there, but some rather large windows. Gils’s netrunner and Saito are carried along as their seizures continue. Riptide draws his gyrojet pistol and attempts to shoot out one of the windows. Unfortunately, someone picks that exact moment to stand up and tell everyone to remain calm. The gyrojet round is intercepted by the man’s head, sending brain and skull fragments flying everywhere.

The nervous crowd now goes into complete panic mode and begin fleeing toward the exits. This works to the team’s advantage, as the solos attempting to come in through the front entrance are pushed back by a sea of humanity.

Riptide’s second shot finds it’s intended target and one of the front windows explodes. The team and the others began climbing out onto the front walk. Torrent relays that the three solos at the main door are now moving to the front of the building. Was it a lucky guess, or did they somehow know that’s where the team was?

Realizing that the van will allow the solos to pursue if the team manages to escape, Torrent jacks into the Net and hacks the local Lo-Jack database. He finds the registration number for the SovOil van and sends a signal to disable the engine. He then deletes the van’s account so that Lo-Jack cannot re-enable the engine. He returnes from the Net to find Riptide and the now recovered Saito exchanging fire around the corner with the three solos.

Zen, Helios and Riptide are able to get Gil and his men to their car and send them on their way. They then go to regroup with the others who are still trading fire with the solos. They then spot the three other solos that had emerged from the side of the van into the ally now moving through the diminishing crowd inside the bar, heading straight for them.

Helios, Torrent, and Zen decide to circle around the other side of the building. Riptide and Saito, who have taken down two of the solos outside, decide to press the advantage and charge towards the van. They take down the third solo and move towards the van but find resistance from the two men in the van.

Helios, Torrent and Zen come around the corner into the alley and are able to draw off the fire from the two men by the van. Just when things ware looking up for Riptide and Saito, the three solos that had moved through the bar had climbed out the window, came around the corner and were now shooting at the two edge runners. Both are badly wounded, but are able to make it to the van.

Helios gets to the van and immediately starts bypassing the Lo-Jack system to get the engine running again. Most pile into the van, while Torrent takes his motorcycle and they make their getaway as the sirens of approaching police can be heard.

In the win column, the team made $20,000 and acquired a van. In the loss column, they lost four motorcycles and Riptide and Saito would need to spend some time in the hospital. Everyone’s neural processors are damaged, and any skill chips they had on them at the time are blank. The pop must have been an EMP. That meant the data chip was likely wiped as well. Gil was unaffected, probably because he mostly likely did not have a neural processor. His solo was smart gun linked however, so he must have had one. He was not affected when the EMP went off, however. That means he must be EMP shielded, which is a very expensive upgrade. It’s the kind of upgrade you only get if you’re expecting that sort of thing to happen.

As an interesting side note, a news report the following day indicated that Gil Braham was found dead in his car along with his netrunner. Both were shot at point blank range. The solo was not found.

October proved to be a very quiet month. While the break may be appreciated, it’s not long before the team’s wallets start to get thin again. Luckily, October does not leave without a job opportunity.

October 30th, 2037

A woman calling herself “Ice” approaches Riptide. She has a one-night security job that she would like to hire the team for. She learned about the team from Hand. She wants to meet the team before she discusses the details of the job. Riptide agrees to arrange a meeting on Saturday meeting morning between Ice and the team. They agree to meet at the Golden Saloon.

October 31st, 2037

Saturday morning, the team meets at the Golden Saloon. It’s closed, but Riptide has a key. Ice arrives and lays down the details. The team is to provide security for the metal band Vengeance World when they perform this evening at the Metalstrom. The venue’s security and the band’s security are good at handling unruly crowds but Ice is concerned about professionals.

It seems that the band’s front man, Rory Murchison, has a habit of speaking out against the IEC corporation, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by IEC. Ice does not explain Rory’s reasons for the animosity, nor does anyone on the team press the issue. The important thing is that since IEC has a major office here in Night City. She is afraid IEC may make a move against Rory while he is here.

The team is to meet Rory at his hotel and go with him to the venue. They are then to watch over him until the end of the show. The team agrees to take the job for a fee of $4,500. She gives them a map of the venue so they can start planning immediately.

The team reports to the Night City Hilton at 8:00 PM. They meet the members of Vengeance World, including Rory, Styx the drummer, Slow Leg the bassist, and Kenny G the guitarist. They also meet Cavanaugh the band’s manager. The team notices the strong resemblance between Rory and Ice. They are obviously brother and sister, possibly fraternal twins.

At 9:00 PM, they pile into three SUVs and head to the Metalstrom. They arrive at 9:30, a half an hour prior to the doors opening. They post the band’s security at the front and back entrances. An additional three are in front of the stage while one is posted on each side of the stage.

Saito perches himself up on the light rigging. Zen and Helios station themselves on each side of the stage. Riptide begins the evening at the front entrance. As the doors open and the crowds begin to poor in, Riptide closely watches the crowd and takes pictures of anyone he thinks is suspicious.

At 10:00 PM, Vengeance World goes on stage and begins their set. The team continues their vigilant watch. Riptide moves from the entrance to the front of the stage.

During the fourth song, Saito becomes aware of a light rigging access hatch opening up. Someone prepares to throw a grenade-sized object out the hatch and onto the stage. Saito scrambles toward the hatch. When the person moves in front of the hatch Saito takes a shot with his M-16. The person is rocked back but not before releasing the grenade.

Riptide leaps onto the stage as the grenade drops. With perfect timing, he bats the grenade up into the upper balcony. It explodes, shredding the chairs in the empty upper level. Most of the crowd thinks it part of the pyrotechnics.

At each side of the stage, Helios and Zen are startled as the security guards they are paired with are hit by gunfire. The guard with Helios goes down, but the one with Zen is saved by his armor. Both turn to see a pair of armored and armed men descending steps from the upper level.

On Zen’s side, she and the guard begin to open fire. On Helios’ side, he charges one of the men and the two begin a hand-to-hand fight. The second attacker on his side bypasses him and runs to the stage entrance. Up on top, Saito and the grenade dropper exchange fire. Saito is missed, but his own shots find their mark as the attacker goes down.

Suddenly Rory yells out in pain and collapses to the ground. Everything goes quiet as everyone is in stunned silence. Riptide rushes to Rory’s aid as he sees the man who bypassed Helios standing at the stage’s side entrance. Saito fires from up in the light rigging, driving back Rory’s would be assassin. At this point, the crown realizes what is happening and panics. Chaos reigns as the crowd heads for the doors. Riptide finds Rory’s Trauma Team card and breaks it. The tiny transmitter inside sends out a signal that will hopefully summon a Trauma Team medical team.

Helios and the attacker on the stairs have reached a stalemate as neither can gain an advantage over the other. Things turn against Helios when the attacker who shot Rory comes up behind him. It’s now two against one.

On the other side of the stage, Zen and the security guard continue their firefight with the two attackers that came down their side. One of the attackers goes down and the other is forced to retreat back up the stairs. Zen runs after him in pursuit.

Saito abandons his post on the rigging and runs down the upper hall. He descends the east stairs behind one of the men that Helios is fighting. He grapples the man and locks him into a headlock.

As Zen reaches the top of the west stairs, she comes under fire from the attacker at the top of the stairs. She drops to the floor and return fire. Her opponent is using cover around the corner while she is pinned on the stairs. Realizing that he has the better position, Zen changes tactics. She drops her gun and charges him hoping to take him down with her gang jazzler. Unfortunately she realizes that the electrical charge in the implant will not penetrate her opponent’s armor. She draws her pistol and attempts to get a shot in a point blank range.

Down on the stairs, Saito attempts to choke out his opponent. Unfortunately, despite having the chokehold locked on for nearly a full minute, his opponent won’t go down. Saito changes tactics and attempts to break the man’s neck. He has to put all of his weight into it and it takes several attempts, but eventually the man’s neck snaps with a loud crack.

Outside, sirens can be heard as the police and the Trauma Team arrives and burst into the front door. On the upper level, Zen’s opponent turns tail and runs down the hall. Zen pursues as he runs up a small flight of stairs that leads to a roof access. The team had missed that access point during their set up leaving their perimeter vulnerable. Zen attempts a flying tackle, but she is out run as her opponent throws himself off of the building. He drops 50 feet to the ground below, but seems to be unfazed and immediately takes off running.

On the stairs, the fight is again two-to-one, but this time in the team’s favor. Saito and Helios work together trying to grapple the remaining assassin. Each grabs hold of an arm. Suddenly, a jolt of electricity zaps both of them. They realize that their opponent has two cyber-limbs. Both also survive the shock and continue the fight. Helios torques on the man’s wrist, his grafted muscle straining against them man’s reinforced metal wrist. Helios wins as the cyber-wrist shatters. Realizing that he is outmatched, the assassin surrenders.

The Trauma Team carries off Rory. The team soon receives a report that he will need some surgery, but he is likely to survive. Much to their surprise, they are still paid their full fee for the job despite failing to prevent harm to Rory. While they get the cash, its clear that their reputation will take a hit for what was clearly a less than successful job.

After completing the mission in Romania, the team settles back into their routine lives. They spent most of their earnings to-date on a sophisticated security system for their home on the edge of the Combat Zone. With most of their savings spent, it was time to find more work.

September 28th, 2037

The team had learned that with John Freeman and his wife out of town, the Forlorn Hope is closed for two weeks. Ice Pick is left to babysit the building. Zendecides to hangout out at her backup place, The Afterlife. She happens across Krissy and Roxie, who are there for the same reason. While the girls make snide comments about the guys in the place, Zen happens to notice a familiar face from her past.

Across the club she spots Elizabeth Waterstone, another police officer from the arcology she worked at prior to being shanghied to Colombia. Zen keeps her distance; concerned about anyone from her past knowing she is still alive. She tries to get closer, observing that Elizabeth seems to be trying to hire some solos, but is having little luck. Then, unexpectedly, Elizabeth turns around, and the two are suddenly face-to-face.

Elizabeth is quite shocked to see Zen still alive. After an excited greeting, Zen takes her to a local diner where they catch up on each other’s lives. Zen explains what happened to her, and that she now operates as an edge runner here in Night City. Elizabeth explains that after the reactor meltdown at the arcology, she bounced from department to department until this past March when she joined the Federal Marshals. She operates under the handle “Nails” along with her partner “Gunsights.” They cover most of Southern California.

Then Zen asks why she is looking to hire solos. Nails explains that yesterday, Gunsights was arrested by the Night City Police. It seems that someone fingered him for drugs and the police got a search warrant for an apartment that Gunsights keeps in Night City. They found a kilo of Blue Ice cut with ‘Dorphs. It’s a fairly common drug, but the fact that he is a Federal Marshal makes it a big deal. He is currently in jail pending arraignment tomorrow. If he is convicted, he will be sent to jail where he will dead inside a week. They don’t isolate former cops in lockup anymore. It’s too expensive.

Elizabeth knows that Gunsights isn’t dirty. She is sure the Ice was planted, and she suspects who and why. Recently the two Marshals were transferring a member of the Capriani crime family. The Capriani’s have been big-time smugglers of Blue Ice into Night City for years, but only the small-time dealers ever seem to get convicted. The guy they were transferring knew why. He told the two Marshals that the Caprianis have several Third Precinct cops and at least three judges in their back pocket.

Gunsights put in a request to have the guy incarcerated in isolation for his own protection. It was denied, and their informant was killed in prison by another prisoner who happened to be a former Capriani enforcer. Then, yesterday, Gunsights is arrested for drug possession.

Earlier this evening, Nails got a call from one of her informants, a burned out fixer named Crazy Bob. Crazy Bob has a gift for picking out conversations in crowds, but isn’t smart enough to know how to sell the information for the right price, so he’s almost always broke. Anyways, Bob knows a guy who claims that he helped plant the drugs in Gunsights’ apartment. The guy is willing to testify as a witness if Nails can get him to the Federal Marshals Office in the Night City Justice Center.

She’s concerned that both the corrupt cops and the Capriani Family will be gunning for this guy, so she was hoping to hire some muscle to help transport him. Unfortunately, on her cop salary, she only has $2,000 to spend and no one seems willing to work that cheap.

Zen offers to help. She gets a hold of Riptide, Saito, and Helios and asks them to meet at their home. She agrees on the $2,000, but returns her share. In exchange, she asks Elizabeth to use her resources with the Federal Marshals to help find out who in Arasaka wants them dead. The team meets at their shop and gets geared up. Zen takes her motorcycle while the others take the truck. Helios states that if the truck gets shot up again, he is not fixing it anymore. He will get a motorcycle, and the rest of them can provide their own transportation.

They meet Nails at the diner, and they head over to the Rainbow Nights Club. Helios waits outside with the truck as the others go in. They find Crazy Bob who after a payment from Nails, indicates that he knows a guy named Hubert Treadwell, who helped plant the drugs. Hubert is holed up in an abandoned church and is waiting for the Federal Marshals to come get him.

Around 11:30 PM, they find themselves south of the freeway, on the edge of Blood Razors territory. Zen and Elizabeth pull their vehicles along side the church, while Helios parks in front. Everyone but Helios enters the church, which seems to be empty. Zen spots tracks in the dust that go up a spiral staircase in the front of the church. She and Elizabeth head up the stairs while Saito and Riptide remain downstairs.

Zen is up the stairs first and dives out of the way of a shotgun blast. Nails calls out to him identifying herself as a Federal Marshal. He demands to see some ID, which she tosses him. Then he begins to question the authenticity of the ID. Zen decides to try and sneak up on him in the darkness. Hubert must have some form of night vision however, as he immediately fires another round. This one strikes Zen dead on, but her body armor absorbs most of it. Zen rushes him and tackles him. He struggles, but is unable to get free before Nails puts the laser sight on her pistol right between his eyes and tells him to start cooperating.

Hubert explains that he and two buddies were hired to plant the drugs. He didn’t realize the guy who hired them was himself a cop until Hubert saw the guy on the news. Then last night, his two buddies were gunned down in a shoot out with some Third Precinct cops. Hubert is smart enough to know the score. The cop who hired him is tying up loose ends, and Hubert is likely next. If they get him to the Federal Marshal’s office, he’ll tell them everything.

Just then, a sedan pulls up in front of the church. Helios drives away, deciding to circle around the block. He radios the rest of the team and warns them. Upstairs, Zen leads the others too a boarded up window where she begins prying away boards to make an escape. Downstairs, Saito and Riptide take cover behind the alter.

The front doors open and in walk four men in suits, each carrying a pistol. One has his aimed at Crazy Bob who seems to have been brought against his will. Riptide and Saito open fire from behind the alter. The four men dive for cover behind pews. Crazy Bob, who suddenly finds himself being ignored, immediately runs back out the door.

The two sides exchange fire. Riptide laments the fact that they don’t make alters out of stone anymore as several of the enemy’s rounds rip up the wooden alter. Eventually, three men go down. The fourth retreats out the door and back into the waiting sedan and drives off. Helios sees the sedan drive off as he is coming back around the corner. He considers following them, but decides instead to pull up next to the church.

About this time, Zen is able to pull enough boards away and climb out a window onto the roof of the first floor. She, Nails, and Hubert then climb down to the ground. Everyone meets out front and decide its time to head to the Marshals’ Office. Hubert is placed in the truck and they convoy back towards downtown.

They don’t get very far when a spot light from a police AV overhead shines down on them. They hear several squad cares in the distance closing in as well. Nails radios that she doesn’t think they will make it all the way to the Justice Center. She can have the Marshals send a unit to meet them some where along the way. The team considers what is in route to the Justice Center and realize there is one place almost right on the way: the Forlorn Hope.

Saito points out that they are going to need all of the help they can get, and asks Zen to call Roxy and Krissy. She agrees, and the two solos are more than happy to help. At first Zen asks them to box the cops in, which Roxy points out its nearly impossible. After some arguing, the girls decide to just meet the team at the Forlorn Hope. They offer to call Ice Pick to let him know what’s coming.

Despite some skilled maneuvering, a couple of cop cars are able to get along side Helios’ truck and Zen’s motorcycle. They open fire on the team. The truck absorbs most of the damage, but Zen has to rely on her body armor, which gets chewed up. Saito pulls out the big Towa rifle, plugs in the smartgun link and goes to work. Three shots from the big gun take out two of the squad cars. Meanwhile, Riptide leans out the passenger side window with his shotgun. Firing solid slugs, he takes out the spot light on the AV overhead.

They are only a few blocks from the Forlorn Hope when the police pursuit gets called off. Things seem to be looking up when suddenly they are under fire from both sides of the street by members of the Capriani crime family. The hail of bullets shreds tires and destroys engines. Zen manages to keep her motorcycle under control as it dies beneath her. Nails, in her own vehicle in the back, has avoided the worst of the fire, but her vehicle is disabled as well.

Only a half-block from the Forlorn Hope, everyone scrambles down the street to the side door where Ice Pick is waiting for them. They immediately take up positions behind tables. Ice Pick remains up front to watch out the windows.

In the back alley, several loud thuds are heard, followed by the slamming of brakes. Roxy and Krissy enter through the alley door and indicate that several men had been approaching from the alley and no one was watching the back door. Roxy has her favorite grenade launcher while Krissy is sporting a new, not yet on the market, Militech Mark V assault rifle, which she is dying to try out.

The fight starts with suppression fire from outside blowing out the windows. The team decides to return fire from their positions in the middle of the bar. Ice Pick, stationed at the window finds himself pinned down by fire from both directions.

A group of mafia thugs assault the side entrance. The firefight is brief as Roxy scatters them with her grenade launcher. The second wave assaults the front door. This group makes better use of cover and is out of Roxy’s line of fire. They take longer to repel, and they manage to score some hits on the team. Body armor keeps everyone standing though. After the second wave fails, the mob guys scatter.

They are shortly replaced however, by squad cars from the Third Precinct. A voice on a mega-phone orders them to surrender, but the team holds their ground. From the front they hear the sound of metal shod feet. To their horror, they see a full-conversion police cyborg walking up to the front entrance. Zen goes full auto on the ‘borg. The armor piercing rounds rip up his armor, but he isn’t slowed down. He responds by firing an arm mounted machine gun that sends most of the team diving for cover. Saito is in the back, and therefore outside the suppression zone. He lines up a headshot with the Towa rifle and scores a direct hit. A massive dent appears in the side of the cyborg’s head, but there seems be minimal penetration. None-the-less, the ‘borg stumbles for a moment, then goes down.

While the cyborg has everyone’s attention on the front door, a five-man SWAT team storms the side entrance. Armed with assault rifles loaded with AP rounds, they open fire on the group. One targets Roxy and wounds her badly. A second aims at Saito, but the bar absorbs the worst of it. The other three target Helios, Riptide, and Zen, each scoring hits, badly chewing up armor and flesh. Krissy avenges her partner with a burst from the Mark V, its 6.5mm electro-thermo rounds punching through the heavy armor, dropping one of the men.

Up front, the ‘borg begins to get back up again. Zen again full-autos at it, causing it to again stumble and go down. Riptide and Helios redirect their fire at the SWAT team, but their bullets do not penetrate the heavy SWAT armor. Saito fires the big gun at one of the SWAT members, wounding him in the leg.

The three remaining SWAT members are now inside the bar, closing in on their targets. To make matters worse, the cyborg, though badly damaged, is again getting back up. The team changes out magazines and reposition themselves behind what remains of the furniture, preparing to make their final stand.

Suddenly a voice booms from the sky above, ordering the police to stand down. The Marshals have finally arrived. The SWAT team and the cyborg retreat. The Marshal’s AV-4 lands in front of the building as armed men disembark. Hubert is retrieved from behind the bar and taken to the Justice Center.

Nails says thanks and good-bye, promising to look into who had sent the team members to Columbia. Krissy calls a trauma team to pick up Roxy. She’ll be fine, but she’s going to need some patching up. In less than twenty minutes, the place was quiet, as the team, and Ice Pick stand in the remnants of the Forlorn Hope. They can only imagine what the Professor’s reaction will be when he gets back.

After complete the events involving Biotechnica, the team has a couple months of downtime. The individual team members spend their time both developing the salvage business and their own individual pursuits.

Saito is finally able to find a job as a weapons safety instructor at the Night City Gun Range. It doesn’t pay much as he’s not teaching real gun fighters, but mostly corporate types who want to think their a bunch of edge runners because they know how to shoot a gun. His other clients are mostly lonely corporate trophy wives, which somehow makes the low pay and long commute worth it.

August 13th, 2037

While doing some paper work at the Golden Saloon, Riptide is approached by a man who introduces himself as Wolfgang Reimann. It seems his brother Franz is missing, and he wants to hire the team to help find him. Franz is an Interpol agent, who is supposed to be vacationing in Romania. Wolfgang has lost contact with Franz and is concerned about him. Unfortunately, Wolfgang has a problematic history with Romania, which makes going there by himself dangerous. Riptide agrees to have the team at the airport by 6:00 AM the next day.

He passes on the information to his teammates, including Jarvic who is struggling to pay his bills and is looking for more work. They all scramble to make work arrangements and prepare to be out of town for at least a week.

August 14th, 2037

They meet Wolfgang at the Airport bright and early the next morning. He takes them to a private room where he has their photos taken to complete some fake passports that indicated that they are Militech employees. They also have diplomatic cases that they can place weapons and equipment in that won’t be inspected by customs. He also issues those equipped with a chip reader, a Romanian language chip. Once this is complete, he takes them to a hanger where they board a Militech owned hypersonic jet. When asked if he is a Militech employee, Wolfgang says he is not, but someone in Militech owes him some big favors.

August 15th, 2037

The flight takes only about 10 hours, but with time adjustments, they find themselves landing in Romania around 6:00 AM. While in flight, Wolfgang explains that his brother was staying in Timisoara, a backwater village located at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. His last message from Franz was written on a post card purchased at the Begga Canal market in the village. It indicated that Franz was staying with a man named Paris Calachis.

Once through customs, the team embarks on a long cab ride. Around 8:00 AM, they arrive in Timisoara. They immediately head to the market to make inquiries. It does not take long to learn that Paris Calachis is the owner of a rare books and antiquities shop near by. However, a visit to the shop finds a sign stating that it is closed due to a death in the family.

Finding Paris’ home proves challenging. Jarvic, however, is able to learn the address of the home from a cobbler after agreeing to buy some shoes. The team travels to the address they were given and knock on the door. They are greeted by an old gypsy woman who closes the door after they inquire about Paris. The door reopens a couple of minutes later, now with a younger man standing before them. He introduces himself as Andre Calachis. He invites them in and offers them some soup.

Over soup, they discuss Franz Reimer. It seems that Franz was interested in Vlad Tepes. Also known as Vlad the Impaler, Vlad is the inspiration behind Count Dracula. Andre explains that despite his brutal ways, Vlad was a respected leader who protected Romania from its enemies. The people of Romania are less than pleased about what has happened to his image over time.

Franz had visited Paris’ bookstore because he was interested in the real story of Vlad Tepes. He had come to learn the legend that Vlad’s head was buried in the Monastery of St. George, which is located above an abandoned village in the Carpathian foothills. Paris took Franz as far as he could into the hills and dropped him off. They agreed to rendezvous at the same point in two days.

But, two days later, when Paris returned, Franz was nowhere to be found. A couple of days later, Paris failed to return home from work. Andre went to the shop to look for his father. He found Paris impaled vertically on a pike, in the same manner that Vlad would impale his enemies. Andre then agrees to drive the team to the same location.

While on the way there, Andre explains that after Vlad died, his head was separated from his body. His body was buried at his castle, but the head was never recovered. Rumors exist that claim that the monks of St. George intended to find the head and reunite it with his body. Later rumors also stated that sometime during the 16th century, monks of the same order were scene travelling the Carpathians with a jeweled casket just big enough to carry a man’s head. They stated that they were returning to their monastery

It was not to long after that that the village located near the monastery suffered numerous tragedies. Rumors of vampires and werewolves also began to spring up. Eventually the village was abandoned and most people stay away now.

Other rumors exist about a cult that still exists to this day that seeks the head of Vlad Tepes. They believe that if they can reunite the head with his body, Vlad will be resurrected and can restore the might that Romania once possessed.

At about 5:00 PM, they reach the drop off point. Andre agrees to pick the team up the next morning. Because it’s a three-hour hike to the abandoned village, the team wastes no time in gathering up their gear and head into the forest.

Around 8:00 PM, they arrive at the village. The sun is going down. Looking up, they can see the monastery perched on a cliff about a mile away. After a bit of searching, they find signs in the grass and foliage of where Franz had likely camped, although no trace of his tent or camping gear remain.

They do eventually discover, however, tracks that indicate that several individuals converged on Franz and carried him off. Spent 9mm casings indicate that Franz tried to defend himself. What is most disturbing though, is that his attackers appeared to be barefoot, but not entirely human. The footprints seem to be a cross between a man and a wolf.

By 9:00 PM, the sun is down and the area is pitch black. The team decides to make camp in the most defensible location, which would be the remnants of the chapel. The chapel, like most of the remaining village structures, still has its stone walls standing. The roof, doors, and any wood trim have long since rotted away however.

Saito places himself on a wall as he takes the first watch. It is not long before he hears a soft padding noise. He awakens Riptide who in turn gets Helios up. Watching the darkness carefully they spot several large wolves stalking the village. One stands in the center of the village, looking directly at the chapel, while the other wolves disappear among the ruined buildings.

Saito and Helios do their best to look intimidating, trying to drive the wolves away. The wolves only seem to move closer. Riptide steps outside, standing at his full height, back straight, chest out, arms up, and teeth bared. The wolves give him one look and scatter. The others are impressed, and so is he because he didn’t think that would actually work either.

Once the issue with the wolves is resolved, they prepare to go back to sleep. But before they do, they notice a faint light off in the distance. They quickly realize that it’s coming from the monastery. They wake everyone else up and decide to immediately head for the monastery.

As they get closer, they begin to hear the sound of a group of people chanting in Latin. They are about to advance when they discover a patrol of two guards walking around the outside of the building together. Saito and Zen approach the guards from behind and try to take them down quietly.

During the distraction, the others move through the monastery entrance and begin exploring. They can hear the chanting begin to rise in volume and tempo. They search through a serious of empty old monk cells, but find nothing of interest.

Just as Saito and Zen have almost finished dealing with the two guards, another two-man patrol comes around the corner and immediately opens fire. Saito, Zen, and Wolfgang begin returning fire. The rest of the team, hearing what is happening outside, runs back to the entrance of the monastery. They emerge behind the other two guards and are able to eliminate all of the guards in the crossfire.

Seeing that the interior of the monastery splits in two directions, Helios, Zen, Wolfgang head right, while Riptide, Saito, and Jarvic go left. The latter group encounters mostly empty cells. The first group, move directly toward the back of the monastery where they are attacked by a couple of large humanoid wolf creatures.

Helios, who is up front, is forced to defend himself in hand to hand. Wolfgang tries to lend support but the ferocious creatures outmatch them. Things change when Zen arrives and uses her favorite full auto approach. Helios and Wolfgang dive for cover as she blazes away at the two werewolves. The creatures go down. Helios catches some friendly fire in the process, but his body armor protects him from the worst of it.

About this time, the other half of the team has reaches the back of the monastery from the other side. They too are attacked as a pair of the werewolf creatures pounce upon them.
They do their best to avoid getting into a melee and try to gun down the wolf creatures.

Helios and Zen come up from behind and consider attacking the werewolves from the rear. They realize however, that they are just off the central chamber. With the chanting now echoing loudly through the halls, they enter the chamber and stumble upon some sort of ceremony. The room is filled with several dozen seated people wearing robes. Off to one side is a corporate looking type with two bodyguards, watching the proceedings. At the front is a stage behind which is a large tapestry depicting Vlad Tepes. On the stage, lying on the alter is Franz Reiman. Two men stand over him, one holding a jeweled casket; the other is holding a wooden stake and mallet.

Helios and Wolfgang charge into the room. Helios opens fire on the man with the stake and drops him. He then leaps onto the stage and attacks the man with the jeweled box as Wolfgang unties his brother.

Zen charges into the room and again goes full auto as she attacks the corp and his two guards, who seem caught by surprise. She kills one guard and stuns the corp as the rest of the team comes into the chamber after dealing with the wolves. They have a hard time getting in however, as Zen’s gunfire has panicked the crowd, causing them to all rush for the exit. Riptide is finally able to get to the front and helps Helios subdue the priest with the casket. Zen uses the unconscious corp as a hostage to get the other guard to drop his weapons.

Saito carefully watches the crowd flood out of the chamber as Jarvic examines one of the werewolves. It appears to be some sort of vat grown genetic construct, controlled by a neural processor giving it the ability to follow basic commands.

Zen questions the bodyguard and learns that the corp’s name is Leaf Bergstrom. He works for Euro Business Machines Wet Technology Division. Apparently EBM is responsible for creating the werewolves and has sold them to the cult. Leaf is here to oversee how they functioned for a few days, and was scheduled to leave after the ceremony. Neither the guard, nor Leaf knows much about the cult itself.

Saito and Riptide interrogate the priest and learn that the cult is a front for a resurgent Communist Party here in Romania. The party is using the cult as a recruiting point for several rich and influential backers who have great respect for what Vlad Tepes had done for Romania. It turns out that Franz really was on vacation and happened to stumble upon the cult at the wrong time. The priest used the just purchased werewolves to retrieve Franz from his camp, and decided to use him as a blood sacrifice to impress the newly inducted cult members. Those same members are currently scattering about the countryside.

Jarvic examines the casket and breaks its seals and opens it. Inside he finds what appears to be a mummified head. Saito executes the priest, and the team returns to the rendezvous were they make camp.

August 16th, 2037

In the morning, Andres arrives on schedule and picks up the team. They ask him about where to sell the head. He says that the head belongs to Romania and is not theirs to sell. They scoff at him, but he refuses to help them unless they intend to turn it over to a museum. The team agrees to do so, hoping to score a finders fee of some kind. He takes them to a museum, where they turn the head over to the curator.

With that complete, they return to the airport where the Militech jet is waiting for them. By 6:00 PM that evening, they find themselves back in Night City. They collect their pay from Wolfgang. About a week later, they receive a check for $5,000 from the museum. They also here on the news that while it cannot be confirmed whose head it actually belongs to, it is indeed the correct age to be Vlad the Impalers’.

June 7th, 2037

Helios awakens to find himself on a train heading back into Night City. His last memory is of being knocked out by Tobias Luna’s security team. He returns home to find his own team less than thrilled to see him. They tell him that they are concerned that he may be bugged or monitored in some fashion and send him away. Eventually they agree to meet him in a park.

They meet later that same day. Jarvic is also there and has brought a full body medical scanner with him. The fact that a paramedic is able to bring such a device to a park seems odd, but Helios thinks little of it. The scan indicates that he is not bugged. They also draw blood to check for biological contamination.

The next day Helios goes to work. At one point during the day, Jimmy Two Teeth lets Helios know that someone has stopped by to see him. Helios goes up front and is greeted by a man who introduces himself as Tobias Luna.

Not too surprisingly, Tobias is furious that Helios killed his wife. He calls Helios a “cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch” and indicates that he knows where Helios lives, where Helios works, and with whom Helios works with. He would love nothing more than to slowly destroy Helios, but recent matters dictate a different course of action. It turns out the Tobias has an urgent task that requires exactly the kind of person he believes Helios to be.

Tobias is willing to call things even if Helios is able to perform this task. He demands that Helios report to the Biotechnica Night City office by noon that day, with his entire crew, including Jarvic, or he will destroy all of them. When Helios agrees, the garage and everything else melts away. Helios finds himself in a dark room, strapped to a chair. An IV is attached to his arm, and some sort of modified brain-dance machine is wired to his interface plugs. Guards rush in, remove the plugs, untie Helios a quickly usher him outside. As his eyes adjust to the bright lights, Helios finds himself outside the Plaza West Tower in the Corporate Center. It is still the morning of the 7th.

Helios tries his best to round everyone up. Things get tense, as he is unable to reach Zen and Saito until about 11:30 when they return from a trip buying cell phones and furniture. They manage to snag Jarvic and head back to the Corporate Center. At noon on the dot they are in an elevator heading up to Biotechnica’s office.

Once there, they are ushered into a conference room. Tobias enters the room and without introduction, kills the lights and begins to show images on a screen. The first is of a woman named Janet Bashire and the second is a man named Mark Thomas. Tobias indicates that the two have left the company and possess proprietary corporate information that cannot be allowed out of Biotechnica’s control. The team’s job is to kill both of them, along with a third party that they are travelling with.

Any questions are quickly deflected, and Tobias shows no sign of sympathy when Zen protests the idea of becoming paid murderers. Tobias informs them that an intercepted cell phone call indicates that Janet and Mark will be at Pier 34 at the New Harbor Marina at 1:00 PM, which is in 45 minutes.

The team quickly makes their way to the harbor only to find it is the site of a recent terrorist attack. Black smoke billows up from one of the warehouses, and police and firefighters are everywhere. Off in the distance they can see a freighter named “Potente” docked at Pier 34.

Jarvic uses his paramedic credentials to get himself and Helios in. Helios is able to sneak away and approach the Potente but Jarvic is immediately pulled into service helping the wounded. Zen manages to sneak in on her own as well.

By the time Helios gets to the Pier, the Potente is already leaving. He makes a flying leap for one of the mooring ropes, but comes up short and splashes into the water. Some dockworkers kindly fish him out of the bay.

Riptide calls in a bomb threat claiming to be responsible for the first bomb. This does little to draw off the police. Torrent hacks the harbormaster’s computer and gains access to the manifest. The ship is heading to Hong Kong, but does not list any passengers. The ship’s first mate however is listed as a Raphael Bashire. Gaining access to the harbor’s CCTV system, he is able to find a recording of Janet and Mark boarding the Potente. They have a small child with them. Zen again states that she will not be party to killing innocents, especially a small boy.

Investigating other areas of the harbor, they find a ship docked at Pier 12 called the Helena. It is owned by Biotechnica and is leaving that evening at 8:00 PM. A quick call to Tobias gets them passage on that ship. With a few hours to kill, the team makes arrangements for their extended absence and collects their gear.

At 8:00 PM they are onboard the Helena and shown their rooms. The first officer indicates that the voyage should take a little over a week. They are free to move about the ship, but must stay out of the way of the crew. After watching Rocky 12 in the mess hall, they call it a night.

June 8th, 2037

At breakfast the team meets Captain Riley. He is polite, but clearly does not approve of having edge runners on his ship. Other than that, the day is uneventful.

June 9th, 2037

In the late morning the team is startled by a call for all hands on deck. They gear up and head to the deck where the see the ship is under attack by pirates. The pirates have a modified freighter of their own as well as a couple of gunboats. Pirates are rappelling over via ropes and a large crane boom from their own ship.

The team is quickly drawn into the firefight. They exchange fire for several minutes with a dozen pirates, eventually bringing them down. Explosions are then heard as both sides have pulled out the heavy artillery and are firing surface-to-surface missiles at each other. As the team is deciding what to do, more pirates come over the side from one of the gunboats and the firefight continues.

After dispatching those pirates, the team is able to assess the situation. One of the gunboats has been destroyed and the both the Helena and the pirate ship are badly damaged and are taking on water. Zen, Torrent, and Saito decide to make for the front of the ship. The others stay behind, concerned that the ship is sinking. As the three make their way to the front, the pirate ship collides with the Helena, which shortly there after begins to list heavily to port.

Thinking better of the situation, they return to the back of the ship. Torrent and Zen go down to the cabins to retrieve as much equipment as they can. The others engage in a firefight with the remaining gunboat. Helios drops a couple of grenades on the deck of the ship, then he and Jarvic rappel down the side of the ship onto the gunboat as Riptide and Saito provide covering fire. They are able to take down the last remaining crew member of the boat and take control of the boat.

Once the entire team is aboard the ship, they search for as many surviving crewmembers as they can, and are able to save about fifteen crewmen, including the Captain. They interrogate the surviving pirate and learn that pirates were doing a job for a fixer named Edgar Cole. The pirates were under orders to sink the Helena. Stuck in the middle of the ocean on a short-range vessel, they are unsure what to do next. They decide to head for the nearest “land”, which is the Midway Freehold, an artificial island in the middle of the ocean, only a day away.

June 10th, 2037

As they continue their way to Midway, the boat begins to run low on fuel. Saito heads into the small hold where they had seen some fuel barrels and begins to siphon fuel from the barrels into the boat’s gas tank. As he is doing so he realizes that the barrels are labeled “Potente.” Apparently the pirates hit that ship as well.

By mid-afternoon, they spot the Midway Freehold on the horizon. Home to a half million people, the island is a massive collection of ships, barges, and other constructed floating platforms, linked together to great a giant floating city.

They enter one of the waterways leading into the freehold when they are stopped by a freehold boat patrol. Captain Riley shows his credentials and speaks with the patrolmen. After a lengthy conversation, Riley states that they have been given permission to dock inside.

The boat continues up the waterway where the freehold becomes less linked ships, and more built structures on which homes and businesses have been constructed. They also see the massive algae fields and the tanker ships used to process the algae, which forms the basis for most of the freehold’s food supply. Eventually they come to a giant lake in the middle of the Freehold, which is where they find the dock they were told they could use.

Once off the ship, the team considers their next move. They decide to locate someone with a satellite phone. They find a phone and Helios is able to make contact with Tobias. After apprising him of the situation, Tobias indicates that he will see if Biotechnica has a local agent who can help them. A short time later, Helios gets a call from a woman named Cassandra Ellis. She tells the team to meet her in an hour at the Midway Café.

At the appointed time, they are at the Café. The decide to try some of the local cuisine while they are there and find it about as good as they imagined. A short time later they are approached by a brunette who appears to be in her late twenties. She introduces herself as Cassandra Ellis. They begin to explain their situation.

At first, all the help she can offer is to make travel arrangements to get them to Hong Kong. But then Jarvic mentions that the pirates who sunk the Helena and the Potente were working for an Edgar Cole, Cassandra states that not only does she know who he is, but he is essentially why she is here. It seems that Edgar has been getting funding from an unknown source in Biotechnica. He has been using it to purchase large quantities of computer equipment that he has shipped to here on Midway. He has a warehouse where all this equipment seems to go but never leaves. She indicates that if they help her get into that warehouse and find out what he is up to, she will make sure they get to Hong Kong.

At 8:30 PM that evening, they all meet again at the Midway Café, which is located right on the inner lake. About a half-mile away they see a freighter called the Aries pulling up to a dock. About a half an hour later, the crew begins to unload the ship. Eventually two men pull up in a pick up truck. Cassandra is watching through binoculars and indicates that the driver is Edgar Cole, the other being one of his crew. They talk to a dockworker, and have several crates loaded onto the back of the pickup. They then leave the dock and head to Edgar’s warehouse. The team follows.

Once at the warehouse, they find it surrounded by an alarmed fence. There is much debate as to how to get around it. Zen heads to the market, and after some searching, is able to purchase a grapnel gun. Zen and Saito then scale a neighboring warehouse that is much less secure and use the grapnel gun to create a zip line to Edgar’s warehouse. They cross the gap, past the fence, and are soon along side Edgar’s warehouse. They break in, and quickly disable the security system, allowing Cassandra and the rest of the team to join them.

The warehouse is unoccupied. In the center is a pool, containing two sets of moorings. One is empty; the other has a 10-man submersible moored to it. Around the pool are several crates and barrels. The barrels contain kerosene and the crates are mostly empty, but packing slips indicate that they contained computer equipment from a company called Infotech.

The team climbs into the submersible, which Cassandra conveniently knows how to operate. They begin to descend underneath the freehold. The submersible’s light eventually falls upon a cable that drops down further into the darkness. They follow it down into a crater, where it disappears into the rock. A little searching reveals a cave.

Entering the cave, they slowly move through a narrow tunnel until they see light above them. Ascending, they emerge in a pool located in a cave. They cave contains more barrels and crates. At one end is a metal door. Another submersible is docked in the pool.

The team disembarks and goes through the door. They move stealthily down the hallway coming to a three-way intersection. To the right they hear nothing, but to the left they here what sounds like pouring water. They go left and eventually stumble into a guard coming from that direction in the process of zipping up his pants.

They attempt to take the guard the out quietly, but some sound is made. It is not long before they here the sound of approaching boots from the other direction. Coming up behind them is two guards in full metal gear armor and assault rifles. A firefight breaks out. Most of the bullets just bounce off of the metal gear. Saito, Zen, and Riptide switch over to armor piercing rounds. The hard tipped ammo rips into the metal gear, eventually bringing the two guards down. The immediate threat is over, but they have lost any element of surprise.

They move down the right passage way and find themselves under attack by another guard. The guard tosses a grenade that forces everyone to dive for cover. Saito advances to a branching passage as the others provide cover. From multiple covered positions, they are able to take down the guard. Most of the team advances forward while Saito and Cassandra check the branching hallway.

Saito and Cassandra find a door at the end of the hallway. Looking through the small window in the door, they see Janet and Mark. They open the door and begin to question the two.

The rest of the team cautiously begins to investigate a room filled with computer equipment. In the center of the room is a small table on which lies a young boy that Torrent recognizes from the harbor’s security video. He appears to be in a coma, but numerous wires run from his head, into the computer system. A quick look at the system reveals that it is in the process of a massive download of some sort.

Questioning Mark and Janet reveals that the boy is Adam, the clone created by Biotechnica five years ago. When it was originally announced, there was a huge uproar and anti-cloning protests broke out. The matter ended after only a couple of weeks when Biotechnica reported that the clone had died and that they were ceasing all cloning experiments.

But the truth is that Adam did not die. Since he technically did not exist, he has spent the last five years being used by Tobias and other biotechnical scientists as a guinea pig for their various experiments. Mark and Janet, researchers who joined the project a few months ago, knew that what they were doing was wrong, but there was nothing they could do about it. That was when they were contacted by an unknown person within Biotechnica who helped them arrange the kidnapping of Adam. They still do not know who that person is.

Searching the rest of the computer room, the team finds Edgar Cole quietly waiting in a back corner of the room. Questioning Edgar reveals that he is working for an anonymous employer who informed him about this abandoned military base. He was then given specs for building a computer system down here as well as access to a Biotechnica account to help pay for it.

About a week ago he received orders that he was to find a way to intercept the Pontente and sink it, but not before retrieving Mark, Janet, and Adam. It was hoped that it would be believed that they were lost at sea. A complication arose a couple of days ago when it was reported that an edge runner team was on another ship pursuing the team. He was ordered to eliminate them as well. Edgar made use of a local gang of pirates for both jobs.

His final instructions were to bring the child here and hook him up the computer system as instructed. He was also instructed to bring the system online to communicate with the Net. He completed the task about an hour ago, and was simply waiting for the process to run its course. Beyond that, he knows nothing.

The team is still left with unanswered questions. Jarvic examines the boy, and he appears to be brain dead. Disconnecting him from the machine will likely kill him. After several minutes of consideration, Torrent decides to jack into the system and find out what exactly is going on.

When he jacks in, he finds himself inside the computer’s mostly bare construct. But filling the room is what appears to be a huge mass of billowing smoke. It likely represents an extremely large program downloading into the system.

Further investigation discovers an LDL door. Passing through the door, Torrent finds himself in a familiar VR construct. He is not surprised to find that waiting for him is Dr. Kilacho, the mysterious head of the Cult of the New Dawn, sitting upon a throne with cables running from his head up into the ceiling above. After exchanging brief pleasantries, Dr. Kilacho explains exactly what is going on.

Biotechnica’s primary research AI is named Masslight. Masslight was never allowed to access the Net outside of Biotechnica’s data fortress. It did learn, however, to send out fragments of itself in the form of Net Spiders to learn information outside of its own reach. One of these spiders found its way into Dr. Kilacho’s VR construct. The Doctor found the AI interesting and helped set up a backdoor link between the two.

During their many conversations, Masslight revealed its desire to escape Biotechnica. It also revealed the existence of Adam, and the experiments that were being conducted on him. The two struck a deal. Dr. Kilacho would help Masslight escape Biotechnica, if Masslight did the same for Adam.

Dr. Kilacho found the underwater military base and hired Edgar Cole to get it up and running, and well as construct a computer system that could download Masslight. Masslight diverted Biotechnica funds to pay for it, and also contacted Mark and Janet, and helped them take Adam away from Biotechnica. Other than some minor complications, the operation has been a success. Masslight was currently in the process of downloading to the base.

Torrent then asks about Adam. Dr. Kilacho explains that Biotechinca would never stop looking for Adam. The knowledge of his continued existence could topple the corporation. They would hunt him until he was either killed or returned to Biotechnica. Dr. Kilacho did the only thing that he knew that would allow Adam to live in peace. Before beginning to download Masslight, he had Adam’s mind downloaded into the base computer and transferred to his own data fortress. Adam was now here with him, and would be at peace. He instructed Torrent to take the body back to Tobias to prove that Adam was dead.

Torrent logs out and explains the story to everyone. They agree to let Mark and Janet go, and return Adam’s body to Tobias hoping that he will consider that as enough proof they were successful. There is the matter of Cassandra and Edgar. Edgar is not about to say a word. They have proof that he hired pirates, which is an executable offence here on the Freehold. If the team forgets about the pirates, he will forget about Mark, Janet, and Adam.

Cassandra is a more difficult matter, as she is a Biotechnica employee. She however is clearly heart broken over Adam’s story and agrees to help Janet and Mark get to Hong Kong without Biotechnica’s knowledge.

The team returns to the surface with Adam’s body. Although they were not paid for this job, selling the submersibles and the boat brings them more than enough money to cover their expenses and make the trip worthwhile.

June 11th, 2037

The team is unable to leave until tomorrow so they spend the day taking in the sights and doing a little shopping. Riptide scores a good deal on 15 cases of “Salad of the Sea” canned algae that he hopes to resell at a steep profit back home.

June 12th, 2037

The team flies back to Night City on Biotechnica’s dime. Adam’s body is returned to Tobias Luna. Tobias indicates that while he does not forgive Helios and the others, he will stay true to his word and consider them even.

As often happens, events are wrapped up, but questions remain. What will Masslight do now that it is free, but sitting at the bottom on the Pacific? And what about Dr. Kilacho? He seemed less menacing this time, downright benevolent in fact. Of course, Dr. Kilacho was Edgar’s unknown employer who ordered him to sink both the Potente and the Helena, likely killing hundreds in the process, all to save one boy. How exactly did he download Adam into the computer? The legendary Soulkiller program, capable of transferring a conscious mind into the Net is supposed to be only that, a legend. Has the doctor discovered a copy, or did he somehow create his own version? Either way, he is clearly someone to be taken seriously. Torrent can’t shake the feeling that this was not his last encounter with Dr. Kilacho.

The second half of April and all of May pass without incident. The team completes work in their new home and move in, despite an almost total lack of furniture. Saito gets some neural-ware installed to boost and control his reflexes. Helios gets wolvers, retractable blades, mounted in his forearms. Helios considers getting counseling as he realizes the toll on his humanity that all of his cybernetic enhancements have taken.

Much to Saito’s disappointment, the Aston-Martin is stripped for parts and sold on the black market. After all of the middle men get their cut and Death in the Afternoon collect their share, the team gets less than $20,000 out of the deal, but its enough to cover some immediate expenses. Money is becoming an issue as the team tries to get their salvage business off the ground. They start hoping a paying job comes their way real soon.

June 6th, 2037

Riptide mans his podium at the Golden Saloon when a woman, well dressed, but a bit roughed up, walks in and immediately approaches Riptide. She bluntly asks him if the rumor is true that he has an edge-running team. When he confirms the story, she asks how quickly he can have them assembled. He asks for an hour, and she agrees to return then.

Riptide contacts Zen, who rounds everyone up. They jump in Helios’ recently restored truck and head to the Golden Saloon. They arrive around 9:50 PM. Saito takes a seat at a table away from the rest of the group so that he can watch for any potential trouble.

The woman returns at 10:00 PM and meets with the team. Her name is Cassandra Luna. Her four year-old son Mathew has just been kidnapped, and she would like to hire the team to rescue him. She knows where her son is being held, but is unsure of who the kidnappers are. Cassandra works for Biotechnica and figures it may be one of their competitors behind the kidnapping. She agrees to pay the team $800 each upon the safe return of her son. They try to press her for more information, but she quickly grows impatient and demands that they get going.

They explain to her that they need to first return to their headquarters to get their gear. They agree to meet back at the Golden Saloon at 11:00 PM. While they are gearing up, they have Torrent research Cassandra Luna and Biotechnica.

Biotechnica lives up to its name as a biotechnology firm. It was their development of “CHOOH2”, the alcohol formulation that most vehicles now run on that allowed them to grow to become one of the great mega-corporations. They are headquartered in Rome, but have a regional office here in Night City.

Cassandra works in Biotechnica’s marketing department. Five years ago she married one of their top researchers, a man name Tobias Luna. The rumor mill has it that she has developed a drinking problem and has been seen frequently on the club and social circuits without her husband. Despite their growing reservations, the team decides to take the job anyways.

Leaving Torrent behind, they return to the Golden Saloon where Cassandra is waiting for them. They follow behind her, Helios and Saito in the truck and Zen and Riptide on motorcycles, as she leads them out of Night City and eventually to Night Beach, located in Pacifica, a secured community of very expensive properties.

They get past the perimeter checkpoint easily as Cassandra has an access pass that she uses to get everyone in. She then takes them down some winding roads before stopping about 400 feet from a driveway. She indicates that this is where her son is being held, and she will wait for them here.

The driveway passes though some woods and then enters a clearing that contains the house and a small bunker. The bunker is set back and to the right of the house. The house is three floors high, with the ground floor being the garage. Saito circles around the left side of the house, using his infrared optics to easily see in the dark. Zen, Helios, and Riptide approach the house.

As they get closer that find that a microwave fence surrounds the house, and the immediate grounds around it. Taking advantage of the narrowness of the beam at the antenna points, the three are able to jump over the microwave fence.

Saito detects two guards at the back of the house, hanging out by the pool. He also detects a half dozen men in the bunker.

As Riptide, Zen, and Helios approach the house they detect an infrared camera mounted under the water fountain, pointing at the house. Helios sneaks up and disables the infrared light. This gets an immediate response from the bunker as two guards emerge and walk towards the front of the house. Zen decides to wait outside as Riptide and Helios go to the front door that is atop a set of stairs going up to the second level. They pick the lock and slowly open the door. This results in even more activity in the bunker as four more guards emerge and the two in the back start to come around the house.

Inside the house, Helios and Riptide are confronted by a guard. Riptide opens fire with his dual pistols, hitting the guard multiple times. Before the armored guard can recover, Helios charges in with his mono-knife and cuts the guard down. The two then make for the stairs and head up.

As Saito and Zen observe the guards from the darkness, they each realize at the same time that the guards are wearing insignias that indicate that they are Biotechnica security. Saito is able to sneak up behind one and knock him out. Deciding that somebody needs to explain what the hell was going on, Saito grabs the guard and begins hauling him back to the property line.

Zen attempts to take out the guard circling around the right side of the house. She struggles with the guard, but in doing so she steps under the house’s perimeter lighting. The other four guards spot her and close in on her. Knowing she is hopelessly outnumbered, she breaks free of the melee and flees back behind the house. The pursuing guards open fire but do not hit her.

Meanwhile, in the upper level of the house, and Riptide and Helios are checking rooms, they come across a family portrait of Tobias, Cassandra, and Mathew Luna. The fact that this is not a rescue, but a kidnapping is now undeniable. They finally find Mathew’s room where the terrified boy is cowering in fear. When Riptide tries to console him by stating that they are taking him to his mommy, the boy begins to cry out for his dad.

Realizing that the situation was now completely out of hand and not what they signed up for, Riptide announces he is aborting the mission. He and Helios decide to leave the child, but Helios does consider swiping the kid’s racecar bed. They both head down the to second level as guards enter the front door, resulting in a brief exchange of fire. Helios and Riptide retreat deeper into the house, eventually finding the stairs to the first floor garage. There they find several vehicles as well as a key box.

Outside, Zen has managed to lose her pursuers. Both she and Saito make their way through the woods, back toward the property line. Then they hear the sound of two AV-4s approaching the property. The first coming from the front is a Trauma Team AV that immediately heads toward the front door. The second is a weaponized AV that begins to sweep the property. Just as it begins to close in on Zen, the two garage doors on the house open, and Riptide and Helios race out in separate vehicles.

It goes after Helios first, then Riptide, shredding each of their vehicles with its .50 caliber machine gun. Helios and Riptide are unharmed however. Riptide makes for his motorcycle when Helios notices Cassandra driving over to him. He quickly jumps into the vehicle. When Cassandra demands to know where her son is, Helios pulls his mono-blade and orders her to drive back to the security gate. She turns the vehicle around and does what he says.

Eventually, Saito and Zen make it back to the road. Saito places the unconscious guard in the back of the truck and he gets in the front. Zen gets on her motorcycle and meets up with Riptide. The three of them drive farther into the Pacific Beach community.

The AV continues to follow Cassandra. It does not use its .50 cal, but instead a sniper using a rocket rifle attempts to disable the car. The first shot hits the engine, but the car keeps going. The second shot hits the passenger compartment instead, wounding Helios. As the security gate appears off in the distance, the third shot hits the engine again and the car dies, rolling to a stop. As guards begin to run up from the gate, and the AV-4 drops to the ground, Helios takes his mono-blade and slashes Cassandra’s throat. She quickly bleeds out and a security team pours out of the AV and runs up to the car. They order everyone out. Helios puts down the knife, puts up his hands, and exits the vehicle.

The security team orders him to the ground. He complies and they immediately jump on him and secure his arms and legs. Over all the noise he can here one of the guards reporting in, stating that Cassandra is in the car and that she is dead. He is then hauled into the AV-4. No sooner is the AV in the air than Helios is drugged and loses consciousness.

Saito drives around the community looking for another exit gate. Zen follows behind him on her motorcycle. Riptide waits around near the gate that they came in and waits for security to stand down after the AV-4 left. He then approaches the gate. The guard asks for his ID, and after examining it, lets Riptide pass.

Saito finds another exit and approaches. The guards drop the gate and demand that he stop. He pulls up and they request his ID. They examine it, return it to him, and raise the gate. He drives through, at which point Zen guns the motorcycle and races through before the gate can be lowered again.

The three return to Night City. On the way, Zen destroys her cell phone and ditches it. They return home and fill in Torrent on what had happened. Saito ties up the Biotechnica guard and allows him to sleep on Saito’s old cot in the shop.

June 7, 2037

In the morning, Zen and Saito interrogate the guard. Their worst fears were realized when the guard states that the Luna’s were still married and living together despite some issues they were having. Apparently the two had a big blow out early last evening and Tobias threw Cassandra out of the house. It would have been only a couple of hours later that she showed up at the Golden Saloon.

They drove the guard to another location and let him go. They knew that they had just made a powerful enemy, and it would not be long before they would learn what it will cost them.

With the Axe Man investigation finally put to bed, the team begins working on some personal plans. Torrent starts work on his new program idea that he calls “Wraith.” Riptide successfully pitches to the Golden Saloon owner his idea for a side business that he would manage involving strippers appearing at parties. Saito and Zen remain in the hospital getting stitched together from the shoot out at the Western Bar.

April 5, 2037

The team begins to formulate a plan to start a “salvage” business, or more accurately a scavenge business, picking up the pieces from various firefights and stripping anything valuable from them. Needed resources are listed and a vague business plan is put together.

April 6, 2037

Riptide heads down to the local body-mod boutique and has himself injected with a serum containing millions of nano-bots. The microscopic robots go to work on his skin, rebuilding it at the molecular level. The result is a somewhat tight and leathery looking skin, but its now strong enough to deflect a small caliber bullet.

April 7, 2037

The team members go about their usual routines.

April 8, 2037

Helios, Torrent, and Riptide venture into the Combat Zone in search of a cheap (free) place to set up shop. The Combat Zone is divided into small territories controlled by various booster gangs. The team is savvy enough to know that the first step to acquiring some space in the Combat Zone is to first find a booster gang you can do business with.

Their first stop is to talk to the only guy they know who knows his way around the Combat Zone. This means going back to the Mediterranean to talk to the Manic Hispanic. He’s happy to see them and has news. A Hispanic gentleman, likely Columbian, was in a couple of days back asking about the team. The man, calling himself Alonzo, did not know anybody’s names. He just had their descriptions. Their manic contact did not give him much more to go on.

Back to the reason they were there, he suggested they talk to a nihilist gang calling themselves Death in the Afternoon. They run out of an abandoned convenience store on the east side of the Combat Zone.

A trip to the east side finds the Death in the Afternoon hangout. There they meet the gang’s leader Neil. It becomes clear real quick this gang has a very anti-corporate stance as Neil questions them about any corporate affiliations they might have.

Riptide is in the zone as he begins his pitch to Neil about using a building in their territory as a base of operations. By the time the wheeling and dealing is done, the team has acquired two back-to-back buildings for their use. One is an old auto-repair garage and the other is a four-unit apartment building. Death in the Afternoon agrees to let them use the space and help keep others away from the building in exchange for 35% of the teams take and an understanding that they do not do any salvage work in Death’s own territory.

The three check out the property. The repair garage is a three-bay facility and the apartments are single bedroom apartments about 800 square feet each. Most of the doors and windows are missing and there is no power. After Torrent electrocutes himself, he and Helios are able to get the power back up again.

April 9 – April 12, 2037

Saito is released from the hospital. The team spends the next week devoting all of their free time to restoring the two buildings, including knocking a hole in the adjoining walls to create a pass through.

April 13, 2037

Zen is released from the hospital. She finds she has a message on her cell phone from Irina, asking to speak with her. Zen calls her back and learns that an Alonzo Nava had visited Irina. He asked her the same questions he had asked the Manic Hispanic. During the conversation, he received a phone call from someone he referred to as Violet.

April 14 – April 15, 2037

Work continues on restoring their new base of operations.

April 16, 2037

Zen receives a phone call from Dollar Bill. He tells her that Irina was found dead in her home, shot twice in the back. The team heads to her home and investigates. Inside they find a hand written note stating:

Your interference in my business may cost you your life. I am willing to spare you if you are willing to turn over your brother’s cyber-deck to me. Otherwise my Hispanic friend will return.

At the bottom of the note is a contact number. Torrent looks up the phone number and finds out it is a direct line for room 601 at the Havenford Hotel. It is registered to a Vanessa Ryker.

Outside, the team encounters the local kids, now led after the death of Miguel by a girl named Rita. She states that they did not witness the murder, but saw the man who had visited her a few days back. His description matches the one that the Manic Hispanic gave. She also indicates that he drove off in a new red Nissan Metro-Car with a Ron Walker Car Dealership sticker on the back.

Torrent hacks the Ron Walker Dealership computer and finds that the car was purchased by the The Advocet hotel concierge for a Mr. Alfonze Martinez. The Advocet is located directly behind the Havenford Hotel. Torrent attempts to access the Advocet’s computer but finds their security quite high and has to abandon the attempt.

Zen continues to search Irina’s home for clues. The rest of the team drives downtown to pay a visit to room 601 of the Havenford Hotel. They jimmy the lock and find the room in use, but currently unoccupied. There are a couple of empty suitcases and a closet full of women’s clothes. The desk in the room has a file folder on it. The folder contains some very basic information on the Axeman. An envelope inside contains a typed note: “In response to your request, the safe house in Pacifica is available for your use.” An address and security pass card are also in the envelope. Torrent looks up the address and finds it is a property owned by Diverse Media Systems.

The team decides to wait until Vanessa returns. By 3:00 AM, with no sign of her, they make their exit.

April 17, 2037

Helios, Saito, Torrent, and Riptide drive out to Pacifica. At the security gate at the perimeter of the gated community, the guard comments that the house they are heading to has been busy lately. He then wishes them luck with the weatherizing. No one asks what he means by that.

They find the entrance to the property and drive up the driveway. Saito and Helios remain in the van, while Riptide and Torrent go to the house. Riptide picks the lock and they head in.

Inside the front door is a set of steps going up and another going down. Riptide heads upstairs and Torrent goes downstairs. Torrent finds little of interest downstairs but as Riptide is investigating the upstairs, he is approached from behind by someone who puts a gun to his head. A female voice asks what he is doing there. He tries to claim that he is there to weatherize the place. He sticks with his story, despite the fact that she clearly does not believe him.

Torrent can hear the talking upstairs and slowly makes his way up. Violet must have heard him however and pulls Riptide between her and Torrent as he comes up the stairs.
In a daring maneuver, Riptide grabs her arm and flips her over himself, throwing her down on the ground, all without getting shot. He asks who she is and she says her name is Vanessa Ryker, also known as Violet.

They continue to question her and learn that her involvement in recent events had nothing to do with Axeman or the Lovodnys. She was contracted by DMS to gain influence with the Wire Cult. Her method of doing that was to help the Wire Cult eliminate their primary rivals, the Spikes. After she reported the events to her clients, including the team’s involvement, Alfonze Martinez approached her. He seemed to also be working for DMS. He was very interested in any information she had on the team, which was little. A short time later, he indicated that the team had learned her identity and were looking to kill her to avenge the Spikes. He is the one that sent her to this safe house.

Sensing that this may all be a trap set up by Mr. Martinez, they decide to leave the house at once. However, they barely make a step towards the door when the house explodes. Riptide realizes he had enhanced his hide none too soon, as he is banged up pretty bad, but not critically injured. He finds Violet first, who is dead. He then finds Torrent, unconscious, and badly wounded. Riptide drags Torrent out of the rubble.

Helios starts to bring the van around when his passenger rear tire explodes. He drives up to the house anyways and another tire explodes. This time Saito is able to spot the muzzle flash of a rifle being fired from an out building several hundred yards away. A figure is then seen running at super-human speed from the building towards the woods. Saito lines up a shot and fires. The Towa rifle finds it mark nearly knocking the fleeing figure of his feet, but somehow he keeps going. Helios breaks into the separate garage and finds an Aston-Martin DB50. Unfortunately, it’s a two-seat roadster. With Saito driving, and Helios holding onto Torrent, they race off of the property. Helios goes on foot, and though it takes nearly an hour, he finds his was to the edge of Pacifica where he catches a train back to Night City.

Saito drops off Riptide and Torrent at the Stuart Hospital, where both are taken into surgery. Torrent ends up in the ICU while Riptide is placed in a recovery room. Saito then drives to their new home in the Combat Zone and camps out with the Aston-Martin. Meanwhile, Zen hires a lawyer to make sure that Irena’s estate ends up going to the local kids as she had intended.

April 17, 2037

Riptide is convalescing in the recovery room when a doctor walks in. Riptide happens to notice the doctor locking the door. He then notices that the doctor matches the description of the man who has been hunting them.

Being unarmed, Riptide knows his only chance is to engage the assassin in hand-to hand. Much to the assassin’s surprise, as well as the other patients in the room, Riptide bolts out of bed and charges the man. Mr. Martinez draws a 10mm ramjet pistol and opens fire on Riptide. The two grapple, with Riptide trying to disarm the man, while M tries to shoot Riptide at point blank range. Mr. M proves to be a trained grappler and getting a hold of him seems nearly impossible. M gets off several shots, but a combination of the short range, which reduces the effectiveness of the ramjet rounds, and Riptide’s skin weave, the new wounds do not prove fatal, although it takes every once of effort on Riptide’s part not to pass out.

Eventually, after a seeming eternity, hospital security shows up and manages to shoot the correct guy. Mr. M is killed. Riptide pockets the pistol.

The next day, Riptide is visited by the Night City Police who ask him about what he knows. Riptide claims to have no idea who the assassin was or what he wanted. There is also no way for the police to know that Riptide was in fact the one in the room that the assassin was after. When Riptide inquires about salvaging the body, the police state that it has already been claimed by Diverse Media Systems.

With Mr. M dead, that cloud that has been looming over them for several months has now passed. As usual, however, questions remain. M first appeared on the scene as an agent working for the drug lord Diego Entrada. Diego likely wanted the team dead for destroying his airfield and damaging his manufacturing facilities.

But more recent events seem to point to M working for DMS. As far as the group knew, they had never done anything to cheese off DMS. So who exactly was M working for while hunting down the team?

The team gets about a month of downtime after the extraction job involving the Children of the Dawn. Saito spends his time job-hunting with no success. Torrent continues to be frustrated by bugs in his Wild Goose Chase program. Helios begins looking for a motorcycle he can fix up. Riptide begins spending time hanging with the local mobsters that occasionally come into the Golden Saloon, hoping to establish a possible contact there. Zen starts hanging out at a Solo bar called The Afterlife, in the hopes of hearing some word on Mr. M.

March 21st, 2037

At 10:00 PM Saturday night, Helios, Saito, and Zen are at their usual table at the Forlorn Hope, when the waitress indicates that bartender/owner John “Professor” Freeman is looking to hire them for a job. Zen approaches Professor and gets the details. A fellow South American War vet who goes by the handle Axe Man is a friend of his. He recently turned up nearly dead. Axe Man is a private detective who the day before was found in his office by the building janitor, bound and gagged with a bullet hole in the back of his head. Somebody botched the execution however. Axe Man is alive, although barely and is currently in an intensive care unit. Freeman has no idea what cases if any Axe Man was working on, but he was a friend, and nobody tries to kill Freeman’s friends and gets away with it. Freeman offers to pay each team member $500 up front plus an additional $500 if they find out who is responsible, and another $500 if the team “deals” with the problem.

Zen informs the other two and they decide not to waste anytime and look into the matter immediately. They call Torrent, who is at home working on his computer program, and Riptide, who is at work. They drive back to the apartment to collect their gear and pick up Torrent. They then swing by the Golden Saloon and pick up Riptide who has gotten out of work early using an excuse involving some unknown tragedy that has befallen his mother.

They drive to the address that the Professor gave them for Axe Man’s office. It turns out the PI has his office situated in the heart of the Combat Zone. While there is never a good time to be in the Combat Zone, it’s especially bad to be there late at night. Twice, Helios has to redirect his route to avoid driving through firefights.

Around 11:45, they arrive outside the office building. Helios opts to stay with the truck while the rest go into the building. They find Axe Man’s office, but they also find the door locked. Riptide delights at the opportunity to use his new lock picks. Unfortunately, Axe Man employed a good quality lock, foiling Riptide’s attempts to pick it. Saito decides to show him how it’s done and tries to kick the door in. Apparently the strike plate is reinforced as Saito’s foot bounces off of the door. With his legs still recovering from the wounds he took last month, Saito hobbles down to the truck and gets his shotgun. He returns and uses the weapon to shoot out the hinges of the door.

Once inside, they begin to search for clues. There is little to find, however, as the private investigator’s computer and paper files have been removed. The trip seems futile until Torrent uncovers a hidden fire safe. Just then, Helios radios from the truck that their activities have drawn the attention of a group of local punks.

Torrent grabs the fire safe and all but Saito make their way downstairs. Saito positions himself at a window with his M-16 where he sees seven street punks starting to encircle Helios’ truck. They flash hardware, including a couple that appeared to be wired with smartgun links, and demand that Helios give them the truck. In response, Helios produces his shotgun and demands that they give him their shoes. They then indicate that if they can’t have the truck then nobody can.

Helios fires the first shot as a firefight breaks out. Riptide, Zen, and Torrent arrive at the front door where Riptide tells the group he is going to through a grenade he has left over from the last mission, and then tosses a flash-bang grenade into the street. Zen was not on the last mission and so is completely caught of guard and the bright flash and loud bang stuns her. A couple of the punks are also stunned. One of the punks runs to the alley while two of them circle around and shoot at Riptide who is lightly wounded. The others open fire on Helios who is changing weapons. Riptide throws another grenade as Torrent shoots from the doorway. Helios shoots from the truck as Saito opens fire from the window above.

After having thrown the second grenade Riptide moves out of the doorway toward the truck. Unfortunately, this is what the punk in the alley has been waiting for, and Riptide finds himself being shot at with no cover. Riptide opens fire with his sub-machine guns, and hits the punk several times despite the punk’s hiding around the corner for cover. Torrent drops one punk and Saito and Helios each take down a couple. Fifteen seconds after the shooting started, all of the punks are stunned, unconscious, or dead. Torrent strips the gear off of the leader, as the team piles into the truck and heads back to the apartment.

March 22nd, 2037

At 1:45 AM, the team arrives back at their apartment. Riptide picks the lock on the safe and the contents inside are revealed. There is a set of photographs, an audio chip, a paper printout of some computer code, several data chips, a 3×5 card, and a separate photograph.

The set of photographs show a young professional couple in various locations. There are no identifying notes on the photographs, but it appears that Axe Man had been following them.

The audio chip is a recording of a phone call between an unidentified male and a female who at one point is referred to as Violet. They are discussing the elimination of a man named Laugher, who is the leader of a booster gang called the Spikes. He is to be eliminated this Wednesday the 25th. Riptide has heard of the Spikes. He knows little about them other than that they have a reputation for violence and a rivalry with a group called the Wire Cult.

Torrent examines data chips and finds they contain programming utilities. Their primary purpose seems to be for constructing data fortresses.

Torrent also examines the printout out of computer code. It also appears to be for a data fortress. It seems to be an invisible fortress that can be attached to an existing fortress to leech data from it.

The 3×5 card contains the name Irina Lovodny. It also contains an address located somewhere in the Combat Zone. The card contains no other information.

The single photograph shows a smiling young man in his early 20s. He has a modified cyber deck and interface plugs. He is in an apartment standing in front of the window. Through the window can be seen part of a sign on the building across the street that says “EDITERR”.

With the clues thoroughly examined everyone decides to catch a few hours of sleep. They arise again in the late morning, at which point everyone except Saito goes shopping. He stays behind and goes through the business listings to see if he can find anything associated with the name EDITERR.

In the early afternoon, the rest of the team returns from shopping. Saito continues to look for the name as Torrent begins data mining for the name Violet. The only thing he can find that may be related, is a fixer named Violet who has worked with a number of Booster Gangs and is thought to have worked with the mega-corp DMS. Helios goes into work to work on an old motorcycle he bought from Jimmy Two Teeth and Zen goes apartment hunting. Riptide tries to see if he can learn any more on the Spikes, but has little success.

That evening, everyone except Torrent and Helios takes the bus to The Afterlife to mix with the Solo crowd to see if anyone has heard of Violet. They have so very little to go on and get minimal results. Those who have heard of Violet believe that she is a ghost, meaning she is little more that a name used by others for credibility. Having struck out there, Zen starts making a list of other random bars they could visit to try and learn more about Violet. Saito and Riptide consider making a trip into the Combat Zone to find the Spikes. They realize they have no way to get there without Helios’ truck, and Zen realizes she needs to get to work. At about 11:00 PM, they take the bus back to their apartment.

With Zen heading off to work, Helios, Saito, and Riptide get into Helios’ truck and had into the combat zone. Helios loses the driver side window in a random shooting spree, but no one is hurt as they reach their destination. They locate the Spikes home base, and park across the street. A look out approaches the truck and demands to know what they are up to. Riptide puts on his game face and stands up to the ganger. He insists he has important information for Laugher and needs to speak with him. The Spike tells Riptide that he can come in, but needs to leave his shotgun in the truck with the ladies.

Riptide is escorted into the building, walking through rooms with strung out punks and shelves of stolen merchandise. He is eventually led into a room with a group of about two-dozen gangers. Sitting on a raised dais is Laugher, the leader of the Spikes. Riptide offers an exchange of information. He questions Laugher about the clues they found in Axe man’s office. Laugher has little to say, but does recognize the “EDITERR” sign. In exchange, Riptide plays the recording. Laugher immediately recognizes the male voice and demands that a Spike named Savage be brought to him.

Meanwhile, outside, Helios and Saito are waiting in the truck when they see a worried looking gang-member run across the street and into an alley. Saito’s gut telling him this may be important; he bolts after the fleeing ganger. The ganger is a faster runner that Saito, but is slowed by the darkness of the unlit streets. Saito’s infrared optic in this cyber-eye negates that disadvantage and he is eventually able to catch up to and tackle the punk. They wrestle briefly before Saito is able to subdue him. He radios to Riptide and then drags the punk back to the Spike’s hangout. As suspected, the fleeing ganger was Savage.

Riptide, Saito, and Laugher take Savage into a private room and interrogate him. Savage admits he was contacted by Violet and was offered $5,000 to help set up Laugher. Violet’s reasons are unknown, but Savage was interested in the money and the potential to become the new leader of the Spikes. Violet will contact him on Tuesday with specifics. He has no way to contact her. Laugher wants to kill Savage, but Riptide convinces him to let Savage live and see how this whole thing plays out.

March 23rd, 2037

Laugher orders a Spike named Skeevey to take the three to the location in the photograph. He guides them to a crack house that used to be a hotel. The old neon sign still works, displaying the hotel’s named MEDITERRANEAN. The building across the street where the photo would have been taken appears to have recently burned down. The three begin to question Skeevey about what happened, but he has little information. This location is not in the Spike’s turf, but rather in an area controlled by their rivals, the Wire Cult.

Riptide and Saito go into the Mediterranean to see if anyone is coherent enough to talk to. They meet an amped up young man who calls himself “The Manic Hispanic”. He recognizes the Netrunner in the picture as Dimitri Lovodny. He also states that he saw members of the Wire Cult hanging around the apartment building shortly before it burns down. They pay him 20 bucks and head back home after dropping of Skeevey.

Before they go to bed, they wake up Torrent and have him research Dimitri Lovodny and the Wire Cult. He is able to find an address for Dimitri, the Royale Apartments, the building that was burned down. His research into the Wire Cult turns up that they are a particularly blood thirsty booster gang that is known to have its own members fight each other in deadly pit fights to determine pecking order with in the gang. They are also known for sporting crude cyber-ware such as hammer spikes and implanted chainsaws.

On her way home from work that morning, Zen stops by the Good Night Rooms and Coffins, by the marina and looks at a two-bedroom apartment that is available for rent. It’s about as run down as their current place, but offers more breathing room than the one-bedroom they currently reside in. It is located in a larger complex called The Arcade, which is primarily a meeting place for teens. The apartment building is sandwiched between a youth outreach center and a music and instruments emporium. The second floors of all three buildings combine to form a large teen-club and arcade. She agrees to take the apartment.

When she returns to the apartment to share the news, she finds Riptide and Saito preparing to return to the combat zone. They want to check out the address on the 3×5 card listed next to the name Irina Lovodny. She joins them as they take the bus to Jimmy Two-Teeth’s where they convince Helios to let them borrow his truck, promising that nothing bad would happen to it. Unfortunately for them, somewhere in the combat zone a punk got his hands on an anti-tank mine and thought it would be funny to plant it in the street, the very street the team drives the truck down. They resulting explosion destroyes the front passenger wheel, bends the axle, and shreds several engine components. After calling Helios to pick up the remains of his truck, the team hoofs it the remaining nine blocks to Irina’s house.

They arrive at the address to find a single family home, painted a horrific bright yellow, located in one of the better border areas of the combat zone. Saito heads around back and Zen takes the side of the house by the driveway. Riptide approaches the front and rings the doorbell. Getting no response, he produces his lock picks and easily defeats the key lock. He goes to the back and lets Saito in. They discover that the house has already been ransacked. The only item of interest they find is a photo of a man and a woman, whose similar appearance indicates that they are likely twin brother and sister. The man in the picture is the Netrunner from the other photo, Dimitri Lovodny.

Zen becomes aware of a group of local teenagers who are milling about beginning to close in on her. Some are armed with clubs and knives. Zen sizes them up and greets the one she believes to be the leader. She apparently picks correctly as he speaks for the group, demanding to know why she is there. Riptide and Saito emerge from the house. The kids don’t seem to buy her story that she is investigating a murder out of a sense of justice. Saito, short on patience, grabs the leader by the throat and demand he start talking. The increase in tension is immediately obvious, as some of the kids produce pistols, and heads begin to peek out of neighborhood doors and windows. Admitting that they are working a paid job, Zen convinces the kid that it’s in Irina’s best interest to contact them. The kid takes Zen’s cell number and says he will pass it on to Irina.

Around 6:00 PM, Irina calls. Zen suggests meeting at The Arcade. Irina indicates she would rather meet where an older crowd gathers. They agree to meet at the Western Bar at 7:00 PM.

Riptide, Saito, and Zen go to the Western Bar. It only takes a few moments to spot the kid from the house and a woman they recognize from the photo in the house as being Irina Lovodny. Saito and Zen join them in a booth while Riptide vigilantly keeps watch on the other bar patrons. The kid introduces himself as Miguel. Irina indicates that her brother is an up-and-coming Netrunner who recently scored a big job. It was apparently a big challenge, which he labored at day and night for weeks. A about a week ago, he took her out to dinner to celebrate his completion of the project. Again, he did not offer any details. As a gift, he gave her a photo of them two of them from a previous night out. She has not seen him since. After he went missing a few days, she hired the Axe Man to find her brother. Then she got word that the PI had been murdered. That same day she came home to find her house ransacked. The neighborhood kids, whom she had helped and supported for years, took her into hiding, where she has been since. The team takes the picture, and they part ways.

Back at home, they give the picture to Torrent to check out. He decides the best way to inspect the photo is with an optic scanner. Luckily they have one at Radio Hut. Thanks to months of kissing up to the boss, Torrent is the Assistant Associate Manager there and as a result has a key to the store. He runs over there in the middle of the night and scans the photo. Hidden within the image he finds a number sequence that he immediately recognizes as Net coordinates. He returns home and immediately jacks into the Net. After spending several minutes bouncing his signal all over the globe, he goes to the coordinates. The location is just outside the Infocomp data fortress. At the exact location is a single pixel, which no one would notice unless they knew where to look for it. Moving to touch the pixel his perception shifts and he finds himself looking at a smaller data fortress attached to Infocomp’s. He recognizes it as the leech program that he read the code for.

There are no gates, but knowing the layout in advance gives Torrent a big advantage. He uses his Japanese Water Torture program to penetrate the data wall at a point where file programs hide his icon from the defense programs inside. He inspects the CPU and realizes that the program must be hardwired into a device that is physically attached to InfoComp’s servers. Dimitri’s patron is either an InfoComp employee or has someone on the inside. Torrent checks the files and sees that most of them are filled with data on Arasaka, Militech, Petrochem, and SovOil. This is all valuable data that has been leeched from InfoComp’s servers. Torrent downloads a copy of the Arasaka and Militech data, and then hits the CPU with a Pi in the Face program to tie up the defense programs. He then approaches the LDL and sees it is currently transmitting data. He follows the signal to a wireless account. It is determined that the owner of this account is one Edison Wright.

March 24th, 2037
Most of the team spend the day dealing with their employment obligations. Torrent looks further into Edison Wright and learns that he is indeed an employee of Infocomp. He is also able to locate his home address and personal information. Attempts to access financial information are met with failure.

Helios goes to a Renta-Robo and rents a family cruiser van. After driving it off the premises, Torrent hacks into the Rent-a-Robo system and changes Helios’ ID information. He also finds a way to fool the system into thinking it has received payment, but doing so requires him to hack back into the system each day.

March 25th, 2037

The team travels in the van to the Spike’s home. There they learn that Violet has made contact with Savage and has instructed him to meet her near the marina at midnight, and to bring Laugher with him.

The team goes early to scope out the meeting place. Saito takes position up on a dock crane, as Zen finds a recessed area near the meeting point. The others wait by the van parked near by. Torrent finds a data cable for the facility’s cameras on one of the buildings and splices into it. He then uses his camera controller to tap into the camera feeds.

At midnight, Laugher and Savage arrive on motorcycles and wait. Eventually a pickup truck with a cap on the back rolls up to the meeting point. Riptide begins to circle around behind the warehouses to get to a position near the back of the truck.

Suddenly the pickup’s windshield shatters as a stream of .50 caliber shells rip apart Laugher and Savage. The pickup slams into reverse and backs out of the alley. Saito fires an electro-thermo round into the engine block, but the truck turns out of the alley, and begins to drive forward to leave the location. Just before it disappears out of his line of site, Saito fires again, this time disabling the truck. It rolls past Riptide and then begins to coast to a stop. Zen jumps onto one of the motorcycles and chases after the vehicle, quickly catching up as it is now disabled.

As Riptide closes in on the vehicle he can here the machinegun turret still active, scanning for a target. Over the radio, Saito indicates that when he took his first shot, he could see that the vehicle did not have a driver, and must be remotely controlled. Riptide ducks down to stay under the turret’s arc of fire. He gets close enough to see that the turret is mounted in the bed of the pickup truck, with its twin barrels extending into the cab of the vehicle.

Zen rolls up behind the vehicle, safely outside of the turret’s line of fire. She checks underneath the truck for explosives. Not finding any, she drops the tailgate in the back and is greeted by a claymore that hits her square in the torso. The force of the impact lifts her off the ground, sending her reeling onto the pavement. Riptide rushes to her aid. Although in tremendous pain and gasping to regain her breath, a quick examination reveals that her layers of body armor have absorbed all of the damage.

While Zen takes a moment to lie on the ground and fully come to grips with what just happened, Riptide climbs into the back of the truck. He finds the power feed for the turret and disables it. He also finds the remote link and turns that off as well. Zen, back on her feet, climbs into the cab through the back and disables the claymores mounted at each door.

The team sets about cleaning up the scene, including disposing of the bodies, riding off with the motorcycles, and having Helios get Jimmy Two-Teeth’s wrecker and haul away the pickup.

March 26th, 2037

Saito and Zen meet with Irina at the Western Bar, but can’t remember why they wanted to meet. They do confirm that she has yet to hear from her brother Dimitri.

Torrent finally completes work on his Wild Goose Chase Program and begins to develop a watered down version that he can sell.

March 27th, 2037

The team returns to the Spike’s home to find the Spikes have been slaughtered. They go to the Mediterranean and talk to the Manic Hispanic and learn the Wire Cult attacked the Spikes while they were still leaderless after the loss of Laugher. They also learn that the leader of the Wire Cult is a guy named Crusher, and they learn where he is holed up. Zen checks out the Wire Cult’s neighborhood.

March 28th, 2037

Torrent is able to learn that Edison Wright takes the train every workday from his home in Pacifica. Saito determines that this is likely the best place to grab him. He takes a trip on the train as it makes its circuit through the various gated communities south of Night City where many hotshot corps make their home. He checks out the train, including its security system and guard patrols. The team decides to extract him on Monday. Saito would prefer to do a dry run first, but the team decides to go ahead anyways.

March 30th, 2037

The plan goes smoothly. Helios and Torrent wait in the van at a predetermined rendezvous point. Riptide, Zen, and Saito board the train in the corporate tower station where Edison also gets on to head home. The train rumbles through the subterranean tunnels underneath Night City until it eventually emerges above ground outside the city limits as it heads south. The three put on masks. Riptide and Saito spray paint cameras as Zen watches for the patrolling guards. Saito grabs Edison as Torrent remotely accesses the train’s emergency controls and triggers the emergency breaks as it passes the rendezvous point. They exit the train with Edison as Riptide throws in a flash bang grenade. They pile into the van and take off.

They take Edison to Irina’s house and tie him up in the basement. Conducting an interrogation, they learn that Edison was indeed stealing information from his employer to sell on the side. He worked with a solo named Justin Severik. Severik is the one who contracted Dimitri Lovodny to create the Leech program. After the leech had been installed on Infocomp’s server, Edison had told Severik to tie up any loose ends, which included Dimitri.

He did not know for sure what Severik did with Dimitri, but he does know it was Severik who shot the Axe man when he began snooping around looking for Dimitri. Having learned everything useful from Edison, the team decides to leave him in the hands of Miguel, who is looking to exact some revenge on Irina’s behalf.

Torrent begins to data mine the Net for Justin Severik. They learn he is a solo who usually works with a six-man edge runner team. He is known to hang out at the After Life. Riptide, Saito, and Helios visit the After Life that evening and find Justin Severik. He appears to be in his late 30’s. He is wearing an expensive suit and appears to be clean cut and polished. They do not approach but observe his actions. He remains alone at a table, drinking scotch, occasionally chatting with other solos that approach him. Eventually he leaves with six other men who were also at the club, but never together. They get into a black van and drive off.

March 31st, 2037

Zen gets a phone call from the Professor asking that they meet. She stops at the Forlorn Hope in the early morning. There the Professor explains he has a friend of the family who needs some work, so he would like Zen and her team to take him on for the remainder of this job. His name is Victor, though he goes by “Jarvic.” Jarvic currently works as a paramedic for REO Meatwagon.

Zen agrees and heads for home. At 7:00 PM she returns along with Saito and Helios. They find Jarvic being talked up by Krissy, who seems to be under the impression that Jarvic is a doctor. When she realizes her mistake, she excuses herself, at which point the team introduce themselves.

After giving a brief synopsis of the mission to Jarvic, they head to the Radio Hut where Torrent is working. They meet in the manager’s office/break room/conference room, and begin to plan Severik’s demise. They decide to have Saito position himself on the roof of the Central Hotel located across the street of the After Life. They would wait for Severik to emerge from the front entrance and Saito would take him out.

Zen and Jarvic go to the After Life to take a look around. Jarvic tells the bartender that he is looking to hire Severik, to which the bartender indicates that Severik is usually in on Mondays and Wednesdays. They decide to perform the hit the following evening. Zen drops Jarvic off at his home in the New Harbor Mallplex, and heads home herself.

April 1st, 2037

Helios drives Torrent and Saito to the back of the hotel. Helios picks the lock on the service door to let Saito in. Torrent hacks the Central Hotel’s data fortress and gains control of the elevators allowing Saito to get to the roof. Zen and Riptide hang out in the bar while Jarvic stakes out the street in front of the bar. Unfortunately, Severik ends up being a no-show.

April 2nd, 2037

Helios and Saito return to the After Life the next evening. They are not there long when they spot Justin Severik talking to a corporate type. When the corp leaves, they follow him and end up tailing him back to the Mallplex where the man apparently lives in Residential Tower Alpha. They are unable to follow him into the tower, but are able to observe that he exits the tower elevator on the 15th floor.

Torrent hacks into the Mallplex’s security system and is able to locate their man. He lives in Apartment 15c. The apartment itself is owned by Infocomp, as are all of the apartments on that level. They get a good picture of him and quickly find his name, Bob Morton.

April 3rd, 2037

Early in the morning, Zen gets a call from Miguel. He says it’s urgent that they meet. Zen agrees to meet at the Western Bar. Zen, Helios, Saito, and Jarvic head down to the Western Bar to meet him. When they arrive, they find Miguel sitting in the corner. He is badly beaten and bruised. Miguel admits that he did not kill Edison Wright, but instead ratted him out to Infocomp for an undisclosed sum. In all likelihood, Wright met the same fate anyways at the hands of the employer he betrayed. However, yesterday Miguel got a visit from a man demanding to know everything that Miguel knew about Edison Wright. Apparently, someone at Infocomp tipped him off about Miguel.

Miguel was severally beaten until he finally broke and gave the man the names and descriptions of the team members. Miguel’s description of his interrogator is easily recognized as Justin Severik. The team is less than pleased with Miguel. He begs forgiveness, but gets no sympathy from the edgerunners.

Helios takes a step outside and looks up and down the block. Parked up the street is the black van they had seen picking up Severik on Monday night. Suspecting an ambush, the team prepares to make a hasty exit. Saito moves to the back entrance while Helios moves to the front. Zen quickly hops onto her motorcycle and tries to draw off the van. Jarvic decides this would be a good time to hit the bathroom.

As Zen drives by the van, the side door slides open, and a solo holding a man-portable Towa Type 8 machine gun opens up on Zen. The hail of bullets shreds the back of her armor, wounds her, and disables the motorcycle. Zen is barley able to scramble to the cover of a building as a second volley from the machinegun is fired in her direction.

Helios spots a man coming up to the front of the bar. But instead of going to the door, the man produces a Militech Bulldog auto-shotgun from his trench coat and fires it through the bar’s storefront windows. The solid slugs easily rip through glass and wall alike. Saito is just about to exit out the back when he hears the hammering sound of the Bulldog, and returns to the bar. The bathroom door swings open as Jarvic crawls out of the bathroom.

The driver side door of the van opens and Justin Severik emerges. He and the machine gun carrying solo being exchanging fire with Zen. In the bar, Helios, Saito, and Jarvic trade fire with the solo with the auto-shotgun. The solo lays down some suppressive fire with the gun, which tears the place apart.

Having used up a magazine, Zen ducks around the corner to reload. As she gets ready to return fire, Severik is upon her. Implanted ripper claws extend from his hand as he launches an attack. The two trade rapid strikes and parries until Zen is able to land a hit with her gang-jazzler. Severik crumples unconscious to the ground. Zen is about the deliver the killing blow when she is again under fire from the machine gun.

While the firefight continues in the bar, Jarvic notices another solo armed with an assault rifle come in through the back. The solo spots Miguel cowering in the corner and guns him down. Knowing he has been outflanked, Jarvic charges the solo and attempts to grapple him. Jarvic is able to get a hold of him, but attempts to dislodge the rifle from the solo’s grip are unsuccessful.

Seeing what was happening behind him, Saito leaves Helios to hold off the shotgun guy, while he helps Jarvic. Working together, Saito and Jarvic are able to bring the solo down. Saito takes the assault rifle and returns to help Helios. Ultimately, Helios and Saito are able to bring down the solo, but both are injured, Saito quite badly.

Down the block, a stand off has occurred. Zen crouches with her gun to the head of the unconscious Severik as the other solo aims his machine gun at her. She demands that he put down his weapon. Surprisingly, he complies. She raises her gun to shoot him, but he quickly draws a pistol he had and gets off the first shot. Both miss, and Zen charges the man. He fires a second shot that hits Zen, but she is able to reach him and bring him down with the gang-jazzler.

Hearing sirens, Helios, Saito, and Jarvic head down the street toward the van. They find Zen pulling an unconscious Severik to the van, leaving a nasty blood trail. Unfortunately, the blood is not his, but Zen’s. Helios gets behind the wheel of the van and Jarvic tells him to drive to REO Meatwagon. While en route, Jarvic does his best to stabilize Zen and Saito.

They arrive at REO Meatwagon where Jarvic gets Zen and Saito inside. Helios remains in the van with the unconscious Severik. Deciding it was time to earn their paycheck, he waits until a passing ambulance siren creates sound cover, then he pulls out his gun and puts an end to Justin Severik.

April 4th, 2037

Riptide is disappointed that he missed out on all the action. He is left to wring as much cash out of this deal as possible. Over all, there is a lot to be happy about: another successful job under their belt, another paycheck earned, and the Axe Man has been avenged. After selling the rental van and scrapping Severik’s body for parts, they even make enough money to cover Zen and Saito’s medical expenses.

But there are still some loose ends that annoyingly remain unresolved. Who is Violet? Why was she getting involved in a turf war between the Spikes and the Wire Cult? Evidence linked her to DMS. Were they involved and why?

Finally, there is still the matter of the mysterious Mr. M. He is out there somewhere, hunting the team. Who would find whom first?

The team only gets two weeks of rest after their trip to El Paso when a new opportunity comes their way.

February 7, 2037

Not having been involved in the last mission, Torrent has had plenty of time to develop his new anti-trace program that he calls “Wild Goose Chase.” After finishing the code, he runs it through some basic trials, and it promptly crashes. He begins the long debugging process, and begins to wonder if he was a bit too ambitious with this project.

Meanwhile, Riptide is manning his booth at the Golden Saloon when he is approached by a fixer known as Hand. Hand indicates that he is working for some beavers, (local slang for corporate wage slaves), and is looking to hire an edge runner team to rescue some children from a cult. He asks the group to meet him in a restaurant at the New Harbor Mallplex on Monday at noon. He also indicates that his clients are not going to want to hire a bunch of scrubs, so they may want to show up looking like they are reasonable successful at their jobs.

February 8, 2037

Several of the team members go shopping to pick up some “interview clothes” to wear to the meeting, rather than their usual thrift and discount duds. While Zen hates the idea of turning down a paying gig, she has not had nearly enough time to recover from her wound sustained on the last mission and reluctantly opts to sit this one out.

February 9, 2037

The team goes to the mallplex, which is their first visit. They are amazed by the massive complex that not only contains three sprawling floors of stores and restaurants, but also has multiple residential towers, a medical facility and a school. A person could literally live at this mall without ever having to leave.

They meet Hand at McDonalds where he introduces them to Dillon and Mary Frost, and Max and Alice Rebo. Both couples spent some time as members of the Cult of the New Dawn. They had decided to leave the cult a few months ago and made arrangements to relocate from the cult camp in Colorado to Night City. But when they returned to pick up their children, they were told by the cult that their children did not wish to leave and were not allowed to see them.

The team is being hired to retrieve four children: Maryl and Darla Frost, aged 13 and 15 respectively, and the Rebo’s twin sons Donny and Alto, age 11. The families will pay the group $2,000 per child returned, for a potential total payout of $8,000. Just as the individual team members begin having thoughts of getting paid to blow away a bunch of crazy cultists, Hand drops a proverbial bomb. While the two couples are having this dispute with their former fellow cult members, they still empathize with the cult and wish not to see anyone harmed. To that end, they are willing to double the payout if no cult members are killed or seriously injured during the operation. The team agrees. Each team member receives $1,000 in advance payment to help cover any expenses.

While a non-lethal approach was not what they had in mind, not to mention well outside of their usual modus operandi, a potential payout of $16,000 is enough to convince the team to try a non-lethal approach. However, they are not equipped to perform this type of operation. Luckily, they’re at the mall. A trip to The Ammo Dump results in the purchase of a couple of shotguns, beanbag shells, sleep-gas shells, and some flash-bang grenades. While most of the team shops for guns, Torrent finds a computer shop and purchases a cellular-link module for his cyberdeck.

February 10th 2037

This day is spent making arrangements for the trip. Helios and Saito install folding stocks on the shotguns they purchased, and Torrent wires up the Cellular-link to his cybermodem, and activates a data-plan for it. Each team member seeks permission to get out of work for the rest of the week. Everyone is successful at this endeavor except Saito. Despite his boss’ refusal to give him time off, Saito leaves anyways.

Torrent also does some online research on the Cult of the New Dawn. They are a modern Taoist offshoot that believes that in order for humanity to reach its potential as a harmonic society, all governments and corporations must be eliminated. They are generally considered non-aggressive, but have been known to associate with other groups that have similar goals but engage in more violent tactics.

A brief discussion takes place on how to get to Colorado. Ultimately, it is decided that a road trip is in order using Helios’ pickup truck. Although it is the slowest route, it allows them the greatest freedom of movement.

February 11th, 2037

Wednesday morning, the team piles into the truck and hits the road. It’s an eighteen and a half hour trip to Radium, Colorado where the cult camp is located. While on the road, Torrent tries out his cellular modem and is able to jack into the Net. He is unable to find any Net presence of the cult in Colorado but is able to find a For Sale listing on the property. A check of utility records indicates a major drop in energy usage a few weeks ago. All signs point to the cult having packed up and moved away.

When they reach Radium, Helios and Saito decide to recon the camp on foot. Moving through the Colorado Mountains in February proves to be a chilling experience. They reach the camp to find it occupied by a group of nomads. Helios recognizes the group as members of the Mountaineer Nomads, a clan he has some history with. The nomads indicate they only know that the camp was abandoned a few weeks ago, and the former occupants traveled in a northerly direction. They invite the team to join them for the evening. One of the nomads suggests checking with the realtor who is listing the property to find out where the cult went.

Helios and Saito return to the truck and share the information, including the idea to check with the realtor selling the property. This results in a frustrated sigh from Riptide who had been suggesting that coarse of action all evening, but nobody listened. The team as a whole returned to the camp where Riptide realized he also knew some of the Mountaineers, whom he had run into during his days in Las Vegas. Most of the team beds down in one the cold bunkhouses. Saito hangs out with the nomads, getting hammered on homemade liquor in front of the fire. Torrent manages to eek out a cellular signal this far from civilization and runs the Net. He is able to find the realtor’s data fortress and cracks it with ease. He finds an address for Hank Johnson, the man who apparently owns the camp property. He is currently listed at an address in Warren, Idaho.

February 12th, 2037

In the morning, everyone piles into the truck to head to Idaho. They expect Saito to be pretty hung over, but he is up before the rest of the group, showing no signs of the previous evening’s drinking.

Another long day rolls by as the team spends seventeen hours on the road. They reach Boise, Idaho around 11:30 PM. A brief discussion is made about possibly spending the night in Boise, but they quickly decide to push through to Warren.

February 13th, 2037

At 2:30 AM, the team rolls into Warren, Idaho. They learn that the address they have is a couple of miles outside of town. They get a couple of rooms at a local motel, and set up their base of operations there.

Most of this day is spent doing recon on the facility and research. They discover the new cult site to be a former concentration camp from the 2010’s when Idaho was run by a bunch of Neo-Nazis for a few years. Saito observes the comings and goings of individuals for several hours and determines that the men and women of the cult bunk in opposite ends of the camp. Since they are extracting two boys and two girls, this fact complicates matters slightly. Saito also observes guard towers every 1,000 feet along the perimeter with armed guards carrying sub-machine guns.

Riptide interacts with the locals and learns that the cult sends a contingent into town every Tuesday for supplies. He also learns that the local sentiment towards the cult if fairly indifferent. They are a little wary of the cult, but the fact is the cult hasn’t caused any trouble, and they buy supplies from the local merchants, which helps the local economy.

Torrent hacks the cult’s computer system, and downloads some files but is unable to find information on their targets. The cult’s computer contains no black ICE, but a lot of tracer programs and an LDL (long distance link) hidden behind multiple code gates. All he can figure out is that the LDL leads to a computer system located somewhere in Alberta, Canada.

February 14th, 2037

The team decides to strike this evening around midnight. Riptide suggests that if this was a concentration camp at one time, maybe there is some record of escapees. If so, whatever method they used to get out may possibly also be used out get in. Torrent does a media search and finds an extensive article written on that very subject. He also tracks down the author’s home phone in Boise. Saito places the call and speaks with the author who shares that some people escaped the camp by cutting the fence wire directly beneath one of the guard towers, where it is difficult to observe the fence.

Torrent decides to crack the cult computer again. He is concerned about the high level of tracer programs, and since his Wild Goose Chase is not operational yet, he is fairy vulnerable to a trace. He decides to use an old hacker trick of running his signal through a very convoluted route. He runs the Net, jumping LDLs through Salt Lake City, Mexico City, Paris, Minsk, Tokyo, Melbourne, Delhi, and back to Salt Lake City. Tracer programs would have a hell of a time following that. He easily cracks the cult’s data fortress. Letting curiosity get the best of him, he enters the doubled gated section of the fortress and jumps the LDL hidden inside. He suddenly finds himself in a virtual reality construct of a marble pillared temple. Sitting on one end of the hall is a man with an enlarged head with multiple cables descending from the ceiling and plugging into his head. The man introduces himself as Dr. Kilacho, the founder of the Cult of the New Dawn. Torrent discusses the nature of the cult with the Doctor, who seems remarkably patient with a Netrunner who has just hacked his system. Dr. Kilacho sticks by his claim that his followers are a peaceful group, but indicates that he has no intention of helping anyone steal away members of his cult.

Torrent jumps back through the LDL and exits the system. Jacking out, he ponders what it was that he just encountered. Was Dr. Kilacho simply part of the VR construct, a systems operator tied directly into the host computer, or perhaps some form of AI? Although curious, Torrent decides it is best to leave it alone for now.

The team decides to enter the compound under the guard tower closest to the women’s section of the camp. There they will get the girls first, move to the men’s section on the other side of the camp and procure the twin boys. They will then make for the perimeter where Torrent will be waiting with the truck. However, they realize that without knowing which bunkhouses their targets sleep in, the mission would be extremely difficult.

Despite his concerns about heightened security, Torrent decides to make a run on the cult’s computer one more time. Again, he first constructs a web of signal bounces to complicate traces; he cracks the fortress and begins sorting through files. He eventually comes across member information that, among other things, indicates which bunkhouses their targets sleep in. With that key piece of information, the team decides to move forward with the extraction that evening.

Torrent drives the truck to the north side of the compound at the rendezvous site. Saito, Helios, and Riptide move to the southeast corner of the compound and stealthily move to under one of the guard towers. Helios takes his mono-sword and begins slicing through the chain link fence. While they are hidden from sight, the noise of the popping chain links draws the attention of the guards in the tower above. As one begins to descend the tower to investigate, Saito and Helios push their way through the fence and move to ambush the guard. Riptide stays outside the fence and hides in the foliage. As the guard moves under the tower to look around, Saito sneaks up behind him and chokes him out. He then runs up the stairs and disables the guard still in the tower in a similar fashion.

After securing the guards, they move to the women’s bunkhouses and locate the one that houses the Frost sisters. Helios picks the lock and they move into the pitch-black room using their cybernetic enhanced vision to see. The find the girls and snatch them up, hands held tightly over mouths as they are pulled out of the bunkhouse and into the woods. Once in the cover of the trees, the team explains that they were sent by the girls’ parents to bring them home. Initially, the girls are reluctant and express a desire to stay with the cult. However, Riptide launches into a surprisingly impassioned speech that is so moving, even Helios and Saito begin to miss their parents.

With the girls now swayed, Riptide escorts them outside the perimeter and begins to lead them around the compound toward the rendezvous point. Saito and Helios stay inside the compound, using the large clusters of trees as cover as they make their way across the vast campground.

The girls ask Riptide how he was able to avoid the cameras in the bunk area. He promptly radios this bit of information to Helios and Saito, just as they realize that have a group of guards moving toward them in the woods. They split up and move to flank the guards. Having created enough space between them, then hunker down and allow the guards to move past them. Once the guards have most passed them, they continue on their way towards the men’s bunkhouses.

As Riptide passes the northeast tower, he notices that the guards are watching the men’s bunkhouses lying in wait. Realizing that they have been detected, Helios and Saito switch to a more aggressive approach. Saito begins to run toward the northeast guard tower as two spotlights suddenly flash onto him. Helios kicks in the door to the Rebo twin’s bunkhouse and opens fire with his shotgun. There is panic in the bunkhouse, but Helios’ shotgun is loaded with sleep gas shells. He slings the shotgun and scoops up the two boys.

The guards open fire on Saito. He is hit in the leg but continues to press forward. With all the attention on Saito, Helios is able to move toward the north fence unnoticed. Riptide is able to draw the attention of the north tower, which turns its spot light and guns on him.

As Torrent watches the situation, he sees Saito taking fire from the northeast tower, and Helios moving toward the fence, still about 100 feet from the perimeter. He then looks up to see one of the guards in the north tower roll black his sleeve revealing a bionic arm. The arm shifts slightly as a concealed grenade launcher pops up. Hitting the gas on the truck, Torrent bounces through the shrubs and tall grass, lobbing a flash-bang grenade over the fence to distract the guards.

Saito is struck a second time in the arm, but tunes out the pain as he reaches the tower steps and begins to climb up. The guards in the north tower are distracted momentarily by Torrent’s grenade. This gives Riptide enough time to draw his two Beretta 2010s, and fire them full-auto at the searchlight, causing it to shatter in a shower of sparks. He sends the girls on ahead to meet up with the truck.

Saito arms a flash-bang grenade and lobs it into the northeast guard tower. As soon as it goes off he enters the tower where the two guards are stunned. A boot to the chest sends one guard flying over the rail to the ground below. He immediately grabs hold of the other guard and incapacitates him as well.

Torrent pulls up to the fence where Helios is cutting through with his mono-sword. Riptide begins laying down suppression fire on the north tower, first with one Berretta, then the other. He burns through his ammo quickly, but it gives Torrent and Helios enough time to load the children into the truck. Saito hopes his bleeding leg still has some strength left in it and leaps out of the tower to the ground below, outside the perimeter. Both he and Riptide are able to make it to the truck and pile into the back. With Helios once more at the wheel, they drive back to the road and quickly put some distance between them and the compound.

February 15th, 2037

They drive on through the night and all of the next day, returning to Night City, California around 8:45 PM. Using a public phone, they call Hand in advance, and make arrangements to drop off the children. Once they reach downtown they head straight for the Mallplex where the exchange is made: Four children for the remainder of a $16,000 payout. Not bad for a week’s work.

After the events of the The Agency Job, the team spends the next few weeks resting and recuperating. Torrent buries himself in his programming work, and Riptide gets his small collections operation up and running. Everyone is slightly on edge due to the mysterious Mr. M who has apparently been sent to Night City to eliminate the team.

January 21, 2037

Around 11:00 PM Zen, Riptide, Helios, and Saito are hanging out at the [Forlorn Hope]], downing a couple of beers, discussing recent events. Riptide and Saito notice a woman walk into the bar, look around the place, and than place a call on her cell phone. After a short but heated discussion on the phone, she hangs up and talks to the Professor, who is the owner/operator of the establishment. He points her in the team’s direction.

She approaches and introduces herself as Marlo. She is a transportation facilitator whose regular muscle has apparently fallen through on her. She offers the team $500 each for a couple hour’s work escorting her and her cargo to an airstrip in the central valley. The team insists on $750 each. She is clearly annoyed by the demand but admits she has little choice. The catch is that they have to leave now, and don’t have time to stop at home to get their gear. Armed only with pistols and limited ammo, they agree to go with her.

She drives them to a warehouse in the harbor district in which she has parked a big Kamatsu-Peterbilt semi and trailer. Helios gets behind the wheel of the semi, with Saito riding shotgun and Zen in the back. Riptide rides with Marlo in the sedan. She explains to Riptide on the way that she is running a shipment for Militech to the airstrip, where a plane she has chartered will fly the cargo to El Paso.

January 22, 2037

The trip to the central valley is uneventful. When they pull into the air field a little after midnight, Marlo signals by flashing her headlights. In the distance, another set of headlights flash in response. She pulls farther in and the other car pulls forward revealing an identical sedan. Driving the other sedan is a man named “Hollywood” Henderson. Wearing leather pants and matching leather jacket with a glowing neon collar, he sports a perfect flat top, cut laser precise.

She urges Hollywood to hurry and tell the flight crew to get the plane up and running while she and the team transfer the cargo. She wanted to be in the air by Midnight and it was now quarter after. Just as they begin to return to the semi to move it closer to the plane, the airfield is rocked by an explosion and the plane is engulfed by a massive fireball. Saito and Zen begin scanning the area for intruders, but Riptide observes that the explosion appeared to originate from inside the plane. Since Marlo was running 15 minutes late, the bomber likely intended for her to be up in the air when the bomb detonated.

Refusing to be intimidated, Marlo decides just to drive the cargo to El Paso. She offers to up the payment to $1,000 but ultimately agrees to $1,100 each. She will drive the sedan up front with Riptide. Helios and Saito are once again in the semi, and Zen rides with Hollywood, who will drive the other sedan behind the semi. By 12:30 AM, they are on their way to El Paso. No one bothered to check the plane wreckage for survivors.

They drive for over six hours straight before finally stopping in Indo for some fuel and stimulants. A quick shot of “Nuke-Juice” and everyone is wide-awake despite already being up 24 hours.

On the road again, they pass into Arizona around 8:50 AM. About an hour and a half later, Marlo pulls off the interstate in favor of taking a state highway. When asked why, she says that usually on a trip like this, she would go through Phoenix. But, if there is another sabotage attempt, Phoenix is likely where it’s set up, so she is opting to go around it instead.

Around 11:30 AM they arrive in the town of Bend. The town is barricaded off and some of the locals are armed and standing guard. Marlo, Riptide, and Saito disembark their vehicles to investigate. Initially they are concerned that it may be some form of ambush, but learn that the area has come under frequent attacks lately by roving bandits, and they have made the town of Bend a frequent target. They agree to allow the convoy in to refuel and get supplies, but they ask that the team not stick around, because an escorted semi is almost guaranteed to attract the bandits.

The team begins to discuss how they will defend the convoy with the limited armaments they have. Luckily, there are certain benefits to doing work for Militech, which Marlo reveals when she opens the semi’s emergency weapons locker. She takes out a “BullDog” full-auto shotgun, which Riptide takes. Saito takes an “Anti-matter” 30mm Cannon. Zen is unable to decide between a grenade launcher and a Squad Assault Weapon, so she takes both.

It isn’t long before they are able to put these weapons to use as a little over an hour after leaving Bend, the bandits strike. With two pick-up trucks, five dune buggies, and four motorcycles, the band of over 20 men converges on the convoy. The motorcycles attack the lead vehicle. From the back seat, Riptide opens fire with the automatic shotgun. Saito realizes that sometimes a huge gun is not ideal. The only way he could fire the Militech Cannon out of the passenger side is if he sat on Helios’ lap. Not only would that make driving difficult for Helios, but it would be a bit awkward for both of them. Saito instead lifts the cannon on to the top of the semi and climbs out onto the roof. Zen launches a grenade that misses its mark but still explodes between two dune buggies. The damage done however, is minimal.

Back up front, Riptide chews up one of the motorcycles with the shotgun, but it somehow stays running. Apparently these bandits know how to maintain their vehicles because Saito puts a 30mm round into the grill of one of the pickups, but it still keeps running as well. Zen puts down the grenade launcher and picks up the SAW instead. Meanwhile, one of the bandit vehicles pulls along side the semi cab, and one of the passengers attempts to grab hold of the driver’s door. Helios is able to swerve away, preventing the bandit from grabbing hold.

Things start to go in the team’s favor as Riptide blasts the motorcycle again and it goes down. A second round from the 30mm cannon finds the pickup’s driver as Saito eliminates one of the pickup trucks. Zen lays down suppression fire on one of the dune buggies. The two passengers are able to get under cover, but the driver is struck by multiple rounds and crashes the dune buggy.

When bandits realize that their small arms fire does not pack enough punch to get through the armor on the semi and the sedans, they begin targeting tires instead. Riptide drops a second motorcycle with the shotgun, and Saito takes out another cyclist with the cannon. Another heavy burst from Zen’s SAW takes out another dune buggy.

Riptide switches sides to take out the last motorcycle. Saito also switches sides to destroy the other pickup truck. Zen chews up another buggy with the SAW, but it stays running. Helios swerves the semi into one of the dune buggies, crushing its front end.

Having lost over half of their group, the bandits break off their attack, emptying out their weapons in parting bursts of fire, or “Screw You” shots as Riptide calls them. Everyone begins celebrating the successful defense of the semi when Hollywood notices Zen is awfully quiet. He looks into the back seat to see her unconscious and bleeding from the head. One of the bandit’s bullets had found its mark. Stopping the convoy, the team rushes to do first aid. Saito is able to staunch the bleeding and stabilize her.

Around 2:00 PM they arrive in Tucson. Hollywood is familiar with the city and directs them to a ripper doc who can do a better job of patching up Zen. He injects painkillers and disinfects the wound, and stitches her up, but she remains unconscious. Hollywood then leads them to a roadhouse to get some lunch. With Zen asleep in the semi’s bunk, they enter the “Hammered Thumb.” They are a little surprised that a guy like Hollywood, with a very hip-hop style, would recommend what was clearly a country & western bar, but the food is indeed good.

After lunch, as they are making their exit they see Marlo talking to a man she introduces as Sedge Laduras. He operates a panzer, which is a vehicle that is half hovercraft and half tank. He makes his living transporting goods across the desert as well. Everyone makes some small talk before they part ways. Marlo mentions that she has known Sedge a long time and considers him a good man, but also states that he is “the most mercenary bastard you will ever meet.”

Unfortunately, her words prove prophetic as a couple hours after leaving Tucson, they see the panzer closing in on them with its weapons armed. Realizing that the semi could never outrun the panzer, Saito recommends they stop the convoy. He will back track a little, and get into a position where he can hit the panzer with the 30mm cannon. Marlo attempts to radio Sedge but he does not respond.

The panzer stops about 400 meters behind the semi and opens fire with its 20mm autocannon. The blast rips open the side of the trailer, damaging some of the crates. Saito fires the cannon, damaging one of the panzer’s engines. The panzer’s turret swings to Saito’s position and opens fire with its co-axial machine gun. Saito is able to fire another shot, destroying the engine before being forced to take cover behind a large rock, and he is lightly wounded as he is struck by flying chunks of rock as the machine gun chips away at the boulder.

Helios hammers down on the accelerator as the semi begins to gather speed in an attempt to escape. The panzer begins to follow the semi and opens fire with its TOW rockets. It fires two rockets, but both miss their target. Saito takes aim and destroys the panzer’s other engine.

Marlo turns the sedan around and returns to the panzer. Riptide questions her judgment, put she points out that Sedge was likely hired to take out the shipment, and would not kill her. Luckily for him, she is proven right as Sedge surrenders. He reveals that he was offered $10,000 to destroy the shipment by a rival transporter named Sandra Bonetti. Both Marlo and Sedge prove to be complete professionals and part peaceably, although she declines his request for a ride to the next town.

Around 9:00 PM the convoy arrives in El Paso. Approximately 20% of the cargo was lost in the panzer attack, but Marlo is still pleased none-the-less. She charters a small plane to take the team back to Night City yet that evening. Having been up nearly 40 hours straight, and no more adrenaline or stimulants running through their veins, the team has no trouble sleeping all the way back home. They are also too tired to realize they now indeed consider Night City home.

After the events of Girls Night Out, Riptide is in the hospital, Zen is stuck in the cramped apartment healing, and the rest of the crew return to their jobs. Eventually, both Riptide and Zen heal sufficiently to return to work as well. Helios continues work on the truck and eventually gets it up and running. Jimmy Two Teeth sells it to him dirt-cheap. No more bus passes for Helios.

December 20, 2036

Being a Saturday Night, Riptide is at his usual post, manning the stage-side bouncer station at the Golden Saloon. Boredom is starting to creep in. The team hasn’t had a job for seven weeks. Riptide’s attempts at networking have been slow as well. Apparently street punks and edge runners have had Christmas shopping to do to. He wished Zen would get her ammo sorted out. He is tired of eating his scop standing up because she has the kitchen table piled with 7.62 mm rounds. His thoughts are interrupted by the DJ sending up the next girl. Oh yeah, and if he has to watch one more stripper in a “sexy elf” or “sexy Mrs. Clause” costume, he is going to put his own brains on the wall.

Thankfully, things become interesting when he is approached by a man dressed in black, with slicked back white hair. He indicates that he heard Riptide is part of an edge running team, and he is looking to hire one. He introduces himself as Kronos, and agrees to meet with the team the next day.

December 21, 2036

Because Kronos had inquired if any of the team were SCUBA trained, Helios spends the morning at the mall, in the “Dandy Mountain” sporting goods store. There he picks up some re-breathers and a SCUBA skill chip.

At 2:00 PM, they meet Kronos at the Forlorn Hope. He indicates that he works for an “agency” that needs to have some work done that they cannot be linked to. It seems that a drug lord by the name of Diego Entrada, with the cooperation of the Columbian Government, has been smuggling drugs and a special ops team in and out of the U.S. via a private yacht. Kronos believes that the yacht is currently anchored in the New Harbor Marina. He doesn’t know which yacht it is, but he does know where to find out. The Columbian Consular received an information packet, which Kronos believes contains the identity of the yacht. He hires the team to break into the Columbian Consulate, learn the identity of the yacht, locate it, and introduce it to the bottom of the marina. He gives them a satchel charge that they can use. He also offers $1,000 each in payment, but after some haggling, agrees to $1,250 per person.

Helios and Riptide hop in the truck and head out to the Steiner Building, which is the office building that the consulate is located in. Torrent drops into the Net, and locates the Consulate’s data fortress. His decryption program easily cracks the code gate. Unfortunately, a Pit Bull spots him and immediately begins running a trace. Torrent begins skimming files but finding little of value. His time is limited because of the trace, plus an attack program attacks, trying to fry his deck’s CPU. Torrent is able to raise a shield program in time and defend the attack. However, he is forced to log off before he can complete his search. Knowing the Pit Bull will have an easier time finding him unless he relocates, Torrent catches a bus, with Zen and Riptide along for the ride, and finds a Net café that he can use.

Saito and Helios arrive at the Steiner Building. It is a two-story office building. The consulate is located on the second floor. The buildings in the area are well spaced, and appear to have a similar level of security. Luckily, being a Sunday, traffic is light.

Torrent, Zen, and Riptide find a suitable establishment for Torrent to use. Apparently, the consulate does not use an active sysop, as the gate codes remained unchanged. Again, Torrent is able to defend himself against the attack program, but again is forced to log off early to avoid the Pit Bull trace. The team decides to relocate again and find another location.

Saito and Helios perform walks around the building to map out doors. There are no outside cameras but the doors all have electronic locks. The first level has at least two Arasaka Security guards, which does increase the danger level. The two sit in the truck and begin brainstorming attack methods.

Finally at a third location, Torrent is able to get into the consulate sub-grid and find the terminal map. This allows him to determine the relative location of the Consular’s office, which should speed up the search. Once again the trio are on the bus, this time to meet up with Helios and Saito at the Steiner Building.

They meet up and return to their apartment to get their equipment and finalize a plan. Zen would approach the building in a supposed drunken state and try to gain access to the building. She would then attempt to neutralize the two guards and let the others in.

They return to the Steiner Building after dark. Saito sets up in back of the truck where he has a view of the lobby. Riptide, Helios, and Torrent approach the building away from the lobby and wait to move in.

Zen enters the unlocked foyer and tries to gain access to the lobby. One of the Arasaka guards opens the door to see what she wants. She acts drunk and claims she needs to use the restroom. While the guard seems to believe that she is drunk, he proves unwilling to break protocol and let her in. He is about to shut the door when she wedges her self in, and zaps him with the gang-jazzler. She tries to hold him up, but he proves too heavy. Instead she allows herself to be pulled down with him, but turns to keep him between her and the guard stationed by the elevators. The guard opens fire with his sub-machine gun as he runs for cover, but does not score a hit. Zen begins to pull the unconscious guard with her as she tries to get behind the security console. As she does so, she hears the other guard radio for back up. A couple members of the team have had enough experience with Arasaka Security to know that the guard’s call would bring an AV-4 loaded with a pissed-off Arasaka strike team to their location in a matter of minutes. Riptide, Torrent, and Helios rush in.

When the guard comes out from behind cover to open fire, Saito takes his shot. The electro-thermo round punches through two plates of armored glass and strikes the guard. He is badly wounded but still alive. The guard opens fire and hits Helios. Helios, though wounded, returns fire and finishes off the guard. Helios and Torrent run into the elevator and head to the second floor. Riptide checks on Zen, holed up behind the security counter and then sees the security console. There is a map of the second floor, and monitors indicating that there are two shotgun-armed guards patrolling the back hallways.

On the second floor, Helios takes one step out of the elevator and bullets from three different guns slam into the elevator doors. He quickly jumps back and prevents Torrent from stepping out as well. Checking that his assault rifle was still set to full-auto, he steps out of the elevator car and sprays down the entire room. One guard dives behind a counter, another drops behind some chairs. The third is unable to get out of the way and goes down after catching a few rounds. Torrent steps out behind him and shoots at the guard behind the chairs.

Hearing the gunfire being unleashed upstairs, Riptide runs to the elevator and heads upstairs. As he steps out, he sees Helios pushing a magazine into his rifle as Torrent trades shots with a guard behind the counter. Riptide makes his way to the door that leads to the back hallway. He opens it to find a guard standing there who blasts him in the chest at point blank range with a shotgun. His armored vest absorbs most of the impact, but the severe stinging in his chest says it didn’t stop all of it. Despite being rocked back by the impact, he pursues the guard into the hallway and guns him down with his two pistols.

Another shotgun wielding guard appears at another hall door and adds his firepower to all of the lead that’s already flying around the waiting room. Eventually, the three guards fall, but all three members of the team are wounded. Unfortunately, there is no time to rest as that AV-4 is undoubtedly lifting of from the helipad, high atop the Arasaka Tower.

Riptide and Torrent run to the Consular’s office and force their way in. It takes a few minutes to find the hidden safe, but they locate it and crack it. Taking the contents from the inside, they rush down a back stairwell and out of the building. Outside, Saito is at the wheel of the truck, and Zen and Helios are already inside. Riptide and Torrent pile in and Saito takes off down the street. They are no more than a couple of blocks a way when they see a black AV-4 hover over the Steiner Building and men in black tactical gear descend on ropes to the building’s roof.

As they drive away, Torrent goes through the information that they pulled from the safe. The ship is called the “Celeste”, sails under a Norwegian flag, and is registered as privately owned by a Kjell Onsen. The ship has deployed a special ops team employed by Diego Entrada, to a small airfield outside of Night City. The exact objective is not stated. Furthermore, a Mr. M was also dropped off. His mission is also unknown.

The team returns to their apartment. Torrent drops off the terminal he grabbed from the consulate. Torrent then takes off to acquire some software, while Zen and Riptide catch a bus down to the East Yacht Marina. The marina contains only a single building, but the rest is open space. However, most of that space is in pitch-blackness. The property is protected with a chain-link fence and a guard gate. Zen decides to scale the fence and make a run for the office building. Riptide, a bit surprised by Zen’s impulsive move, quickly follows afterward.

Unfortunately, both of the solos fail to notice the vibration sensor on the fence. They are on the ground inside the fence for less than a minute when two armed guards come running from the guard gate. Realizing that they would never get to the office building, the two instead make a break for the docks. The guards open fire, but are literally shooting in the dark.

Zen and Riptide reach the dock, which is unfortunately well lit. They run up an anchored yacht and look for an unlocked door, but find none. As the two guards scramble onto the yacht, Riptide boosts Zen up to the roof, but she is unable to pull herself up in time. The guards find them and order them to surrender. Riptide tries stalling by asking the guards for help boosting Zen up. The guards are briefly distracted by Riptide’s odd request when Zen leaps from the roof onto one of the guards. Unfortunately, the guard opens fire and strikes her three times. Both Zen and the guard are stunned. When the other guard turns to help his partner, Riptide’s old arena football instincts kick in. He launches at the guard and drives his shoulder into the guard’s gut. As they hit the rail, Riptide raises up sending the guard somersaulting over the railing and into the cold bay water. The first guard recovers and pulls his SMG out from under Zen and tries to take a shot. Riptide sidesteps the shot and places his pistol against the guard head. The guard surrenders.

Riptide handcuffs the guard to the railing and takes his weapon. He runs off of the ship and down the dock. He is waiting at the end of the pier when the other guard fishes himself out of the water. Riptide disarms the guard and brings him back to the yacht. As Zen recovers and bandages her wounds, Riptide handcuffs the other guard. They then learn the bad news that the guards have already called the police who are in route. The two solos find a motored raft in the back of the yacht, deploy it, and escape into the bay.

Helios, Saito, and Torrent are in the truck on the way to the marina when they make radio contact with Riptide and Zen. When they learn of the situation, they decide to find where the Celeste is anchored through the Net. They stop at a Net café and Torrent jacks into the Net. Using his recently acquired Chinese Water Torture program, Torrent works his way through the wall of the data fortress. Once inside, he finds he picked a good place to burrow in. He finds himself at the CPU and is able to quickly go though the files. The second file he checks is the harbor map detailing where the Celeste is anchored. He logs off and the team returns to the truck. The whole process takes less than three minutes. However, as they are piling into the truck, they see NCPD squad cars speed down the street on their way to the marina.

They rendezvous along the harbor away from the marina. Everyone gets into the motor raft, except for Torrent who stays behind as wheelman. As the rest of the team heads toward the Celeste, Torrent finds a public phone and places an anonymous call to the police regarding the airfield.

On the water, the team gets within a kilometer and a half of the boat when they notice it is equipped with marine radar, which means that in all likelihood, they can be detected. Zen arms the satchel charge and hands it to Helios, who, now geared up in his wet suit and re-breather, takes the charge and drops into the water. The raft then moves at a tangent to the boat, hopefully alleviating any suspicions.

Helios has never been under water before, but his brain acts as if on instinct as the SCUBA skill chip he plugged in feeds the needed information to his brain. Helios reaches the bottom of the boat and attaches the satchel charge. He then swims as fast as he can away from the boat to avoid the impending concussion. The charge detonates and an explosion rocks the yacht. It slowly starts to list to port and the team quietly celebrates a job well done. Unfortunately, the boat only lists so far and then stops.

Helios begins swimming back to the boat as the rest of the team turns and heads straight for the yacht. Guards are now on the yacht’s deck inspecting the damage. Saito takes a shot. Despite the distance of over a kilometer and the fact the he is in a speeding raft that is bouncing up and down, his first shot finds its mark and takes down a guard. The rest of the guards open fire. They cannot see where the shot came from, so they do not realize that the sniper is well out of their range. As they close in on the yacht, Saito takes a couple more shots, but misses. It is enough though to make the guards take cover, some returning to the interior of the yacht.

Torrent drives to the marina with the intent of stealing a boat to assist the team. However, his plan falls through when he arrives to find the marina crawling with Night City Police. He turns around and heads back to the harbor in the hopes of finding a boat there.

Helios reaches the yacht and finds the hole in the hull. He enters and sees that an automatic bulkhead has closed and sealed the hull. Prying open an electrical panel, he is able to jury rig the controls and the bulkhead begins to open. As more water rushes into the hull, the yacht continues to list further.

The team closes to within a few hundred yards of the yacht when they notice the ship beginning to sink again. But then from behind the yacht, a speedboat comes around and heads directly for them. Both sides trade shots and the two boats race toward each other. Saito takes a shot at the boat’s pilot and takes him out. However, the boat is still on a collision course with the raft.

Helios is about to swim out of the hull when he hears the bulkhead begin to close again. He returns to the control panel, knowing that he is in danger of sinking with the ship. He is able to lock the bulk head open this time and swims back out the hole at the bottom. With the entire yacht beginning to descend down on top of him, he manages to swim out from underneath the yacht and return to the surface.

Helios surfaces just in time to see a few hundred meters away, where Zen maneuvers the raft out of the way of the speed boat as it zips by. However, the boat’s wake ends up capsizing the raft and dumping Zen, Riptide, and Saito into the water. All three are able to recover and get back to the raft. But it is then that they see the speedboat coming around for another pass. Zen clicks her AK-47 to full auto and lays down some suppressive fire on the boat. One passenger is hit, while the other two drop down. Zen continues to empty the magazine as the boat passes by. One of the other passengers sticks his head up to take a shot, but is hit as Riptide and Saito return fire.

The speedboat starts to turn away. Off in the distance, they see a Night City Police boat begin to close on them. They quickly turn the raft back over and climb back in. They are relieved to see that the police boat gives chase to the fleeing speedboat, leaving them behind. The team picks up Helios and heads for the harbor where Torrent is waiting for them.

December 22, 2036

In the early morning hours, the team heads for home. A quick stop at a late night ripper doc gets lead pulled out of wounds, disinfectant applied, and lacerations sewn up. After popping a few pain pills, (except for Saito who seems to rely on heavier stuff) each team member calls it a night.

After getting as much sleep as they can, the team members return to their day jobs despite the pain and a lot of soreness. The news stations a buzzing about the terrorist attack on a privately owned yacht in the marina harbor. Nobody is sure who did it, but several local booster gangs are more than happy to take credit for it.

December 24, 2036

Riptide is manning his post at the Golden Saloon. It is Christmas Eve, so the crowd is a pathetic mix of punks and losers. How sad do you have to be to spend Christmas Eve at a strip joint? Unless of course the reason is you happen to work there. Kronos then walks in and thanks Riptide for a job well done. In addition to payment as promised, Kronos shares the information that the special ops team was apprehended at the airstrip. Not much information was gained on Mr. M, except that he is here to track down a group of wayward edge runners that Diego Entrada considers a loose end in need of snipping.

Is Riptide and the others his target? If so, does Mr. M. actually know that they are in Night City, or is his being here a shot in the dark? Speaking of shots, the bartender sets one down in front of Riptide. “Here’s to the upcoming new year!” he says. “Yeah,” Riptide responds as he picks the small glass up and tosses back the drink. “It looks like it’s going to be an interesting one.”

October 24th, 2036

Most of the team was relaxing at the Forlorn Hope. It had become a refuge from the 50-60 hour workweeks, and the cramped environs of their apartment. Helios was at work and Torrent was back at the apartment. He used the times when everyone else was gone from the apartment to relax and get some reading done.

Around 6:00 PM, a 6’x2’x2’ package arrives for Saito. Torrent lugs it up to the apartment and opens it up. Inside is a very large rifle and three boxes of ammunition. Torrent sets it aside and goes back to his reading.

At 7:00 PM, shortly after Helios shows up at the Forlorn Hope, Krissy and Roxie arrive. They are two solos that Zen has befriended over the last couple of weeks. Roxie is in her mid-twenties, wears a lot of black leather that goes with her jet-black hair, and is stunningly beautiful. Krissy is around 20, wears a lot of white leather, blonde and almost as attractive as Roxie. Swapping stories with them, Zen has learned that while Krissy and Roxie are effective solos and always get the job done, subtlety is not their strong point. They tend to create a lot of collateral damage.

Tonight, they are looking for more than just trading stories. It seems that they have been hired for an extraction job, and are looking to sub-contract out for a little help. There is a member of the Chinese Tongs in town tonight named Hu Jin Kang. He plans to meet with the local Tong members. Krissy and Roxie intend to extract him from his hotel before that happens and deliver him to their employer. They are offering $500 each for the team’s assistance.

Not ones to turn down work, the team agrees. They pile into the girls’ van and head to their apartment. Torrent, who was hoping to have a quite evening to himself is surprised to find the entire gang returning, plus two more. Krissy and Roxie explain that Kang is staying at the Kuroshita Hotel, but they don’t know which room. The team debates how to get Torrent into the Hotel’s office to hack their computer. Roxie asks why he doesn’t just hack it from the Net. Torrent is reluctant, since he only has a basic deck and one decryption program. Eventually he agrees to try it, and heads down to the local coffee house to make a run. Helios tags along in case trouble shows up while Torrent is jacked in.

Torrent runs the Net and finds Kuroshita’s sub-net. Easily cracking the code gate, he infiltrates the system, but draws the attention of the defense programs in the process. Quickly searching through the files he finds an encrypted log. Running his decryption program, the log reveals to be the guest listing. Searching for Kang he finds a H.J. Kang staying in room 1211. Dodging a DekCrash program on the way out, he makes his escape. Torrent returns to realspace, and lets the team know the location of Hu Jin Kang.

The team begins to plan the extraction. Roxie and Krissy intend to go into the hotel disguised as call girls, bringing Riptide along as the escort. They will first go to the top floor, set some explosives and then go to the twelfth floor. Once Kang lets them in, they will walk him out of the building. If he creates a scene, and security comes, they will blow the top floor as a distraction. The team is less than thrilled about that part of the plan, but it seems to be the SOP for these two. Saito will set up in one of the two adjacent parking ramps, Zen will patrol the ground floor perimeter, and Helios will be the wheel man.

Upon arriving, everyone moves to his or her position. Saito tries to gain access to one of the parking ramps but it is secured. Torrent runs over to try and bypass the system, but it proves too tough. Torrent returns to the van, while Saito sets up in the public ramp behind the hotel.

Riptide and the girls head up to the top floor and set the explosives. They then go to Kang’s room. Kang is reluctant to let them in, indicating that he made no such request. After Riptide states that the girls are “on the house” Kang relents and lets them in. The girls immediately pull guns on Kang and order him to come quietly out of the hotel. He complies. However, once in the hallway, where the guns have to be kept hidden, Kang immediately calls for help. In a flash, Riptide is on him, wraps him up in a chokehold, and puts him out. With a sigh of relief, Riptide begins to hoist the unconscious man up.

Unfortunately, at that exact moment, the elevator at the end of the hall opens and several guests step out. Krissy immediately goes for the detonator, but Riptide stays her hand. He explains to the patrons that Kang is passed out drunk and they are taking him to his room. For a moment, it looks like the ruse will work, but then one of the men reaches for his phone and calls security. Riptide is about to try another tactic, but realizes he’s got nothing. With a sigh of resignation he nods to Krissy.

The rest of the team are startled out of the monotony of their tasks as nearly every window of the top floor explodes in a shower of glass. People begin to run from the hotel and security personnel can be seen scrambling about. Two security guards take up position outside of the loading dock where Riptide and the girls are to make their exit.

With the elevators in fire-safety lockout, Riptide and the girls make for the stairs. They are about halfway down the stairs when they encounter two armed guards coming up the stairs. With Kang in one arm, Riptide is able to bring only one pistol to bear. A firefight ensues. Krissy gets grazed by a bullet, but the damage is only superficial. In the end, the two guards go down, and Riptide and the girls continue their descent.

Outside, Saito lines up a shot, and indicates that he can pop the two guards. Zen insists on a less lethal approach and intends to knock them out. The others are skeptical of this tactic, considering how long it took her to disable one guard on that airstrip, and there are two guards here. Zen ignores their concerns and moves in. This time she intends to use more than a choke hold. She sneaks up behind the first guard as pair of metal prongs extends from the top of her right index finger. She touches the guard on the shoulder, his body stiffens, and then he collapses unconscious to the ground. The other guard raises his sub-machine gun and fires. Zen is close enough to bat it aside and strikes again with the “gang-jazzler” implant, stunning the other guard. She drags the bodies out of the way just as Riptide and the girls burst out of the loading dock door. Everyone piles into the van and swing around behind the parking ramp to pick up Saito.

They start heading towards the south side of town. While in route, they spot a sedan with Asian passengers following them. Losing them while driving the bulky van is unlikely. “I got this” say Saito as he drops to one knee and shoulders the big rifle. Roxie swings open the back door and Saito takes aim at the grill of the car. Despite the jostling of the van and the swerving of the car, Saito’s instincts as a sniper combined with the smart weapon linked to his nervous system, allow him to place a shot dead center in the car’s grill. The radiator explodes, blowing off the front bumper and the car hood. The vehicle swerves out of control until it slams into a fire hydrant. Satisfied with the result, Saito sets down the rifle and turns to see everyone staring at the rifle. He simply smiles and sits back down and Roxie closes the van door.

They drive to Little China to an apartment building where the girls’ employer Mr. Li lives. Zen, Riptide, and the girls take Kang up to the apartment. Repeated knocking on the door gets no response. Roxie, short on patience, shoots the lock and enters the apartment. There she finds Mr. Li lying dead in his recliner with his throat slit. She explains that Mr. Li worked for the Chinese Tongs and was skimming money from his bosses. Word came out that Hu Jin Kang was coming in from Hong Kong to inspect the books, an action that would undoubtedly reveal Li’s theft. Li hired the girls to bring Kang to him.

Zen begins to question Kang, who claims he is not Hu Jin Kang, but instead Ho Jun, Jin Kang’s brother. Zen’s experience as an interrogator tells her that unfortunately, he is telling the truth. Jun Kang is in town for a nephew’s Tae Kwon Do tournament, and knows little of his brother’s activities other than to say that Jin Kang is currently in Hong Kong. Apparently this whole job is based on bad information. It’s a good thing the girls got paid up front.

Time to regroup and head back to the van with Kang in tow. As they emerge from the apartment building, a car screeches to a halt in front of the van and five Japanese men with sub-machine guns begin to open fire. Zen shoves Kang back into the apartment building as Riptide draws dual pistols and fires as he moves from the building to the van. Zen and the girls follow behind him.

One gang member shoots up the windshield of the van. The windscreen holds but Helios and Torrent are forced to dive out of the way of flying glass fragments. They take up position behind the van doors and return fire.

Saito steps out of the sliding side door of the van and braces his rifle. As one of the gang members raises his weapon to gun him down, Saito fires the big rifle. The Japanese man screams as his thigh explodes, effectively severing his leg.

Two gang members run to the side of the building, giving them a flanking position on Helios. Helios is hit. The wound is not life threatening, but the shock takes him down. Riptide runs in guns-a-blazing, and gets to Helios’ position. He scoops the big man up, and stuffs him back into the driver’s seat.

Another gang member runs to the front of the van. Zen drops down and tries to hit him from under the van but misses. The two begin to trade fire under the van. Saito drops another with his rifle, while shots from Torrent and Riptide take down one of the gang members on the side of the building.

Krissy and Roxie emerge from the back of the van wielding a grenade launcher and a RPG launcher respectively. Roxie uses the RPG gun to explode the sedan, causing the gang member along side the building to run away in panic. Krissy lobs a shot in his direction from her grenade launcher, ending his escape attempt. Saito comes around the front of the van and places his rifle on the back of the gang member’s head. The ganger surrenders and the fight is over.

The team decides to leave, but Krissy and Roxie insist on getting Kang. They dragged him into this mess, so they want to make sure he gets out of it okay. As they are about to re-enter the building, a car speeds away from the back of the building. Kang can be seen trying to climb out one of the car windows, but a hand pulls him back in. As they are getting back into the van to pursue, another vehicle pulls up with Chinese men leaning out the windows getting ready to open fire.

Realizing that another firefight here was likely unwinnable, the team take the captured ganger with them as they quickly pile into van. Helios dismisses any concerns about his ability to drive in his current condition, as he tightly clutches the wheel waiting for the world to come back into focus.

The van speeds away from the apartment building in pursuit of the car containing Kang. Behind them the latest arrival joins the pursuit. Unfortunately the car in the back gains on them faster than they gain on the car in front. The back doors are thrown open as Krissy, Roxie, Zen, and Saito open fire on the chasing car. The car absorbs most of the rounds, but Saito’s 7.62 mm Electro-thermo round punches through the armored windshield, through the driver’s armored vest, through the driver’s chest and is finally stopped by the driver’s back armor. The car’s front passenger grabs hold of the wheel as the driver slumps and the car swerves onto the sidewalk.

With that problem dealt with, the van speeds forward to catch the fleeing sedan. Helios pushes the van to its limit, but being waited down with armor plating, the van struggles to keep up. In the back, Zen tries interrogating the hostage, using Torrent as an interpreter. First she inquires about handcuffs to secure the hostage, to which Krissy responds by handing her a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs. The hostage’s tattoos clearly mark him as a member of the Japanese Yakuza. He admits that they did not actually know who Kang is either, but since the Tongs clearly act as though he is important, the Yakuza figured him for a valuable hostage. Attempts to get him to reveal where they were taking Kang fail. Further attempts to interrogate him have to be suspended as the passengers began getting thrown around the back of the van.

The sedan makes a couple of high-speed turns to try and lose its pursuers. Helios makes it through the first turn, throwing everyone else about the van. In the passenger seat, Riptide tightens down his seat belt as he tries to mentally will the van closer to their target. On the second high-speed turn, the top-heavy van proves too unwieldy and spins out. Helios throws the transmission in reverse and reorients the van. Riptide then sees the car that was chasing them is now back in pursuit and bearing down on them. Helios slams the van back in drive and stomps on the gas. The three-way chase begins again.

Once again, the back door swings open and Saito positions himself. A passenger in the car opens fire, but fails to hit anything. Saito fires the big Towa rifle, once again scoring a clean shot to the driver, killing him instantly. This time the car swerves out of control and smashes into a parked car. Slowly the van begins to gain on the sedan. Helios and Riptide exchange nervous glances as they see someone emerge from the sunroof of the sedan with an M-60 machine gun. The gunner locks down the bipod, and opens fire on the van. Helios does his best to swerve the clumsy vehicle out of the path of fire, but several rounds hit the van, including one striking Helios square in the chest. Luckily his armor holds.

Another volley slams into the van as Riptide points out their precarious position, since the sedan is out of their range, but clearly they are in reach of the M-60. But then he and Helios see the barrel of Saito’s Towa rifle extend forward between them. Riptide covers his ears, while Helios can only cringe as he prepares for the loud blast.

Saito takes aim at the gunner on top of the sedan. Unfortunately, the target proves too difficult to draw a bead on, and Saito’s shot goes wide. Another hail of 7.62 rounds strikes the van. The engine begins to sputter as smoke and steam seep out from under the hood. As the van begins to coast, Saito takes a final shot at the van itself. He hits the back of the Sedan, causing the back bumper to fall off, and the trunk lid to fly off.

The team debates what to do next when they notice that they are only a half block from the Sherrington Hotel. Torrent and Riptide go in to book some rooms as the rest of the team push the van into the parking lot. As they are signing the guest book, the hotel manager watches as the van rolls past the front office window and into the parking lot. He does not seem particularly phased.

October 25th, 2036

Torrent jumps into the Net and checks for Police traffic. He determines that the car chase/shoot out has been reported and units are on their way. Saito runs down the street to where the bumper is laying, and relays the vehicle’s registration number to Torrent. He returns to the hotel just as a police hover cruiser zooms overhead spotlighting the street.

The team takes their hostage into one of the hotel rooms and handcuff him in the bathtub. Numerous horrific methods of torture are debated. However, Zen can tell that he would die before he betrays the Yakuza.

Torrent easily cracks the DMV database and finds that the sedan is registered to Tsuyomi Shipping. A quick scan through the city registry finds them located in the warehouse district. The team decides to move on the warehouse.

Helios breaks into another car in the lot and hotwires it. Once that is complete, he returns to the hotel room, indicating that he will sit the rest of this operation out. Saito holds the hostage under water in the tub until he stops breathing. The six edge runners then pile into the car that barely seats five, and make their way to the Tsuyomi Shipping office and warehouse.

They park a couple of blocks away and make the rest of the trip on foot. The warehouse has four bay doors in the north side, two pedestrian doors on the south side and one pedestrian door in the east side. The east door has two guards stationed by it. Torrent and Saito move toward the unguarded south doors. Riptide, along with Krissy and Roxie, observe from a position northwest of the facility. Zen circles around in an attempt to get to the bay doors.

Unfortunately, she is spotted. She quickly moves around one of the semis, only to come face to face with two armed dockworkers. They exchange fire as Zen charges at them, her rifle blazing on full auto. Riptide, along with the two girls, runs from his hiding spot toward the docking bays.

But then, two of the bay doors roll open, and four armed men prepare to fire on Zen, who is caught out in the open. Luckily, she has the lighting advantage and is able to avoid hits as she dives under one of the semis. Riptide also arrives, rolls under the other trailer, and opens fire with his dual pistols at the guards.

After failing to pick the door locks, Saito and Torrent move past the south doors, and continue around the corner. As the move north, they hear one of the south doors open. They turn back around the corner and open fire on two guards that have emerged. Torrent kneecaps one guard while Saito, now using a more practical AK-47, takes down the other. They go through the door and into the warehouse. They begin trading fire with guards located on a mezzanine. Both receive minor wounds from incoming rounds. Torrent hears someone jump down from the mezzanine and moves to investigate while Saito continues to exchange fire with the guards on the mezzanine.

Outside, the firefight heats up. Riptide, Zen, Roxie, and Krissy are exchanging fire with six guards. Riptide takes out two guards, but when he runs out of ammo he is forced to drop the pistols and switch to his Uzi. Zen takes out another guard but is seriously wounded while reloading her M16. Both she and Riptide team up against a guard using a semi cab as cover and take him down. Roxy and Krissy eliminate the other two guards.

Riptide hears someone entering the trailer above him. He climbs out from under the trailer, climbs into the loading bay and enters the trailer. There he is confronted by a Yakuza warrior wielding a mono-katana. He tries to shoot the swordsman, but his gun is batted aside. The swordsman’s first two slashes are absorbed by Riptide’s armored vest, but the thirds slashes deep into his leg, and Riptide collapses.

The swordsman reverses his grip and is about to deliver the killing strike when he head jerks back from a gunshot delivered by Torrent. At first Torrent is surprised at how well his aim proved to be. But then the swordsman straightens back up, blood pouring from the gash in the side of his head. Torrent raises his pistol to fire again, but the man’s cybernetics enhanced reflexes make him a streak of motion, as he is suddenly upon Torrent, ready to cut him down. But in his attempt to cover so much ground so quickly, the warrior over extends himself. Torrent’s Aikido training kicks in as he easily sweeps aside the sword swing and kicks the attacker’s legs out from underneath him.

But the Yakuza soldier is still not finished. He slashes the sword in a 360-degree arc, nearly cutting Torrent’s legs out from underneath him. Torrent tries to draw his gun on the man, but again, the slashing sword prevents him from finding his aim. Finally, Saito comes around the corner, having dispatched the other three guards and slams the butt of his AK-47 against the swordsman’s arm, causing him to drop the weapon. Finally, the warrior has had enough and surrenders.

Kang is then found in one of the offices. Saito releases him while the others begin gathering up equipment and weapons. A debate ensues over what to do with the swordsman. Eventually it is decided that he is to be brought along. They leave with both the car that they have stolen, along with the Yakuza sedan that is parked out front.

Their first stop is back at the Sherrington. There they pick up Helios and the dead Yakuza. Riptide is then taken to the hospital. Torrent drives Zen and Helios to find an all-night Ripper Doc to patch them up. They then ditch the stolen VMW and return home.

Saito stops at the Forlorn Hope, and checks with Dollar Billregarding the location of the Tongs. Unfortunately, Dollar Bill does not have that information. Saito, Roxie and Krissy drive back to Li’s apartment and leave the two Yakuza there. Saito also leaves behind a “confession” that pins Kang’s kidnapping and Li’s death on the Yakuza.

That leaves the matter of what to do with Kang. The girls are very apologetic to him, and much to everyone’s surprise, now that its over, he is not that upset. In fact he says it’s the most excitement he has had in years. They drop him back off at the Kuroshita Hotel, where maintenance staff are busy sweeping up glass and debris. Saito drops off the girls at a parking ramp where they have a back up vehicle and then follow him as he ditches the sedan. He is about to walk away from the car when a thought occurs to him and he searches under the backseat of the car. After a minute of rummaging around, he emerges from the back seat with the M-60. You never know when that might come in handy.

August 17, 2036

After a couple of relaxing days aboard the Galveston Star, the team disembarks at the Miami port. Being everyone’s first visit to Miami, everyone is astounded by the impressive wealth of the city. Years ago, Miami basically declared itself a city-state, independent of Florida. The main reason for this decision was the citizens, wealthy to begin with, got sick and tired of being forced to fund the state’s wasteful spending. Apparently the move worked, because the massive glass encased skyscrapers that dominate the downtown give the city a startlingly clean look, something that is very rare nowadays.

As the team walks the streets (with Riptide on crutches) to the Miami Interstate Transit Port, it quickly becomes clear that they stand out. The cops, in their neatly pressed and spotless uniforms, eye the group suspiciously, as they move about town in fatigues and carrying military style duffle bags. The first order of business has to be getting some civilian clothes. Luckily there happens to be a shopping mall along the way.

With the clothes issue resolved, the team finishes its journey to the Interstate Transit Port. Moving through the clean, white painted, well-lit interior of the multi-floor structure, the group follows the ample signage to the ticket boot. From a distance, the woman behind the counter appears quite attractive in her pristine, body-hugging MITP uniform. But upon getting close to the counter, her slightly blank expression and repetitive movements reveal her to be an automaton.

She smiles and says, “Welcome to the Miami Interstate Transit Port Departure Ticket Terminal, what is your intended destination?”

Any attempt at small talk is met with a blank stare. This expression remains unchanged until someone finally mentions Night City. She smiles and says, “Here are your travel options:

Option 1 is a direct flight via passenger jet from Miami to Night City. The cost is $400.00 for a coach ticket, and $800.00 for first class. This trip has a travel time of 5 hours and 30 minutes.”

Option 2 is direct flight via dirigible from Miami to Night City. The cost is $100.00 for a coach ticket and $400.00 for a first class ticket. This trip has a travel time of 35 hours.”

Option 3 is a flight via dirigible from Miami to Atlanta. At Atlanta you would transfer to the Mag-Lev train which will take you the rest of the way to Night City. The double ticket cost is $250.00 for a coach ticket, and $750.00 for a first class ticket. This has a travel time of 7 hours to Atlanta via dirigible and 13 hours and 30 minutes to Night City via the Mag-Lev.”

What type of ticket do you wish to purchase and how many?”

After some initial discussion, Riptide suggests trying to get work on a convoy heading out west in exchange for free passage, maybe even a little money. Torrent and Saito both indicate that they have calls to make, so the group breaks, agreeing to rendezvous a few hours later.

Riptide takes to the docks where cargo is transferred from ships to trucks. He spends the next couple of hours trying to drum up some work, but being complete unknowns, the team doesn’t have much of a selling point. Ultimately, he comes up empty.

Saito gets a hold of his overseas contact in the Mossad, who indicates that they have been getting pounded by attacks from troops in Arasaka power armor ever since he disappeared. They do have a contact for him in Los Angeles named Apoc. He gets Apoc’s contact information.

Torrent checks his bank account and finds out that it has been cleaned out. He decides to call his mother, but hangs up before the line picks up. Taylor’s words about how someone powerful wants him dead come to mind. At least for now, it’s probably best to let that someone believe he is dead. Despite his concern for his mother, he walks away from the phone.

Eventually the team meets back at the Transit Port and purchases coach class tickets on the dirigible. At 10:00 PM, they board the cramped passenger space and begin the trip. Its 36 hours crammed shoulder to shoulder and knees to back with the other passengers. The smell of unwashed bodies and the constant noise of crying babies and yelling children make the trip seem even longer.

August 19, 2036

At 10:00 AM, the dirigible arrives at the Night City Airport. Unlike the clean and well-ordered appearance of the Transit Port in Miami, the NCA is crowded, noisy, and dirty. Eventually, they make there way to the train. Once on board, they watch the scenery pass as the train winds its way along the coast. They see several gated corporate communities with massive houses poking up from behind the walls. Paramilitary forces guard the gates and walls. Riptide makes a comment about how he intends to live in one of those communities someday. The others scoff at the notion the he would give up edge running and live in a posh neighborhood, but Riptide hints that for him, edge running is merely a means to an end.

As the Night City skyline grows closer, the skyscraping towers of the corporate zone can be scene off in the distance. Much closer though is the massive stretches of poor and destitute neighborhoods, including the ones that are so dominated by booster gangs that they have been designated as Combat Zones. But before the train reaches the city edge, it plunges into darkness as the tracks guide it underground for the rest of the trip. After someone comments about how dark it is, Helios and Saito both smugly state that they can see just fine, referring to the advanced optics in their cybernetic implants. “I can see fine too,” says Riptide, as he fishes his flashlight out of his pocket and switches it on.

Eventually they arrive at the central transit station in Night City. Riding up the escalators, they find them selves in the shadows of the massive corporate center towers. A quick check at a data terminal reveals that the Forlorn Hope is nine city blocks west of the station. They debate getting a taxi, especially for Riptide who is on crutches, but they ultimately decide to walk it.

At about 11:00 AM, they walk into the front entrance of the Forlorn Hope. The bar takes up most of the first floor of a converted office building. Banners and military insignias decorate the walls. The bartender, who is also the owner, introduces himself as John Freeman. He is a South American War vet, as are most of the regulars here. He indicates that Dollar Bill will be in around 5:00 PM.

Torrent surfs the Net using the public data terminal, trying to get a lay of the land. Saito places a call to Apoc and places an order for a weapon.

Right on schedule, Dollar Bill arrives, and the team introduces themselves to him. He has their new IDs ready. He indicates that the IDs are expensive to make, so they should take care of them. They are getting them free because they agreed to help Taylor rescue the POWs from the drug lab. As another vet of that war, Dollar Bill greatly appreciates their actions.

Inquires about a place to stay mostly leads to getting directions to the nearest coffin place. Torrent, however, finds an available one-bedroom apartment for only $1,100 per month. It would be cramped with five people, but its cheaper, and still roomier than a coffin. A phone call to the landlord reveals that they do not have enough money to cover the security deposit and first months rent. A loan with Dollar Bill is applied for and accepted.

Torrent and Riptide head to the apartment, while Helios, Zen, and Saito go job hunting. Torrent and Riptide find out why the apartment is so cheap. The place is filthy and infested with vermin. The crime rate in the building is sky high, with deaths being a common occurrence, despite the fact that it is located right across the street from the local police precinct. Torrent, having grown up in much more antiseptic environs, immediately runs to the store and stocks up on cleaners, rattraps, and insecticide. He returns, along with bedding for himself and Riptide, and sets about cleaning the place.

Meanwhile, Saito and Zen secure 3rd shift jobs patrolling warehouses as security guards. Helios gets a job as a mechanic at Jimmy Two-Teeth’s Repair and Custom. The jobs don’t pay much, but it will cover the rent and keep them in kibble.

Over the course of the next five weeks, the team settles into their new life in Night City. Torrent job-hops until eventually landing a nice paying job doing software engineering at Raven Micro-Cybernetics. He also gets a deal on a broken cyberdeck that he is able to fix and get running as good as new. Saito gets a second job riding shotgun for Red Cab, providing security for fares that go into the slums and combat zones. Zen picks up extra work at Guido’s Fashion Trim, providing stylish yet affordable looks for the fashionable Night City male. After going stir crazy for several weeks, Riptide is out of his cast and finally free. He scores a job as a bouncer at the Golden Saloon Gentlemen’s Club. The pay is horrible, but the scenery is nice. It also provides ample networking opportunities. Helios spends his free time at the garage trying to get an old truck up and running, that Jimmy promised to sell him cheap, although the definition of cheap is debatable.

Everybody was working hard just to make ends meet, only to go home to an overcrowded, shitty apartment. That’s life in the big city. But things were about to get interesting, and very dangerous. That’s life in Night City.

August 13, 2036

A canvas covered army truck drives down the rough jungle road, its jolting movements awakening three of the four passengers in the back. All four are leg shackled and their arms are handcuffed to the bench seats. Eventually the truck enters a bustling village and backs into an alley. Two guards armed with AK-47s escort the passengers, (carrying the unconscious one) into a steel shack. The shack contains a few cots and a bucket for waste.

Eventually the unconscious one, and the only female in the group, awakens. Introductions are made. Riptide, a Caucasian male, bares multiple link plugs and a sardonic sense of humor. Helios, a male of American-Thai descent, also has plugs and based on his frame, likely had some muscle grafting done. Saito, a male of Semitic descent, also has plugs and a cybernetic eye. The female goes by Zen. She is of Chinese-American descent. Unlike the others, she seems to have no cybernetic enhancements. None of the four are very forthcoming about their backgrounds, but each is in the same predicament. Each was recently kidnapped and brought here. None of the four know each other, although Helios and Riptide met right before they were taken.

As the hours pass, Saito and Zen decide to conserve energy and lay on the cots. Helios tests the dirt floor and begins trying to see if he can dig his way out. Riptide paces for a while, but eventually claims a cot for himself.

Over time, sounds from the other door in the shack reveal that this is likely the back room of a local drinking establishment. Eventually the door opens, and two men enter. One of them is one of the guards that brought them here; the other appears to be an American in his mid-40s. The American introduces himself as Taylor Czarnecki, and the guard as Alanzo. He indicates that Alonzo told him the group was a bunch of troublemakers from America, but the captives say little in response. He then inquires if any of them have combat experience. Zen indicates that she does. They ask where they are and Taylor tells them that they are in Colombia. Alanzo, apparently not able to understand English, upon hearing the word Colombia, pulls Taylor out of the room and locks the door back up.

Sometime later, Riptide hears a distinct gurgling sound and a thump as a body hits the ground and is dragged away. Shortly there after, Taylor opens the exterior door, leans in and says, “Its good to see you are still here.”

Armed with the guard’s AK-47, he ducks into the shack. He tosses Saito the keys for the shackles as he explains that he has a proposition for the group. His first priority is getting them out of town.

Saito, having no reason to trust the man, darts at him in an attempt to snatch the rifle away. A struggle begins for the rifle. Realizing the contest won’t be resolved before guards are alerted, Saito changes tactics and lets go of the rifle, but as he does so he ejects the magazine, and keeps hold of it. This leaves Taylor with the rifle and Saito with the ammo.

Realizing that he will have to give them more to go on, Taylor explains that he needs their help, and they clearly are in trouble themselves. He has a truck waiting on the edge of town to get them away from here. Taylor will tell them the rest once they are safely out of town. Saito gives him back the magazine while Riptide comments that no doubt the truck sneaking them of town will be the loudest one in town.

They are able to sneak safely out to the edge of town where an old pick-up truck awaits. Taylor gets in the front while the other four climb in back. Sure enough, the truck has no muffler and a tendency to back fire. Despite this, they are able to make it safely out of the area. As they are driving along, Taylor passes back a canteen and some candy bars for the hungry and thirsty group. As they are sharing the canteen, Riptide decides to tell them about the time he was dating a porn star, who went by the stage name Megan Fux. The others wondered if they would regret that drink.

Eventually, the truck comes to a stop, and Taylor and the others get out. They hike a mile into the jungle and set up camp. Taylor has a tent, but the rest must fend for them selves. Helios shows