The team gets about 6 weeks of down time after their trip to Antigua. The news is still full of the ongoing struggle between CINO and OTEC. By early December, CINO holds about 36% of IHAG stock and OTEC owns about 27%.

There is no question now that a full blown corporate war is on. CINO oil platforms are destroyed and OTEC submarines are sunk. IHAG shareholders meet mysterious fates. CINO and OTEC’s contracted security providers, Arasaka and Militech respectively are becoming more and more involved with each incident, although so far there has been no direct confrontation between the two firms that have long hated each other.

January 5th, 2041

Riptide gets a call from his Militech contact, Colin Fisk. He offers $50,000 for a quick one day job. OTEC needs to recover some critical cargo from one of its sabotaged submarines. Collin wants Riptide and his team to meet him out at the Midway Freehold. Riptide calls the rest of the team.

January 6th, 2041

The team flies out to the Midway Freehold, arriving in the late afternoon. Collin meets them and gives them the run down. An OTEC submarine was sunk by saboteurs a couple hundred miles from here. It contains a new powered armor suit called the Demi-Gorgan. The suit is basically a weaponized version of OTEC’s Gorgan underwater work suit. The team is being tasked to retrieve it. Collin gives Helios the pilot chip that is needed to operate it.

Collin tells them that OTEC and CINO ships are currently parked in the water several hundred meters above the wreckage in a stand-off. No one goes into the water without being challenged. That is why the team is being sent in via a stealth submarine. Nobody up top should even know what is happening.

The team is issued dive gear that is designed for the depths they will need to go to. The suits are armored, but Collin warns that any breach in the suit can lead to severe injury do to the pressure of the water that will try to push its way in. They are not going deep enough where it would be instant death, but it could very easily be life threatening.
They are also issued semi-automatic spear guns and an emergency beacon. He also offers SCUBA memory chips for anyone who is not naturally proficient.

January 7th, 2041

In the early morning hours, they are loaded aboard a submarine just big enough for them and their pilot. They then spend the next 12 hours aboard as the small sub shoots through the water towards their destination.

In the early afternoon, the pilot reports that they are closing in on the wreckage site. The team seals their helmets and drop through the access port on the bottom of the sub. The first thing they do is turn on the lights on their suits, as it is very dark due to the only small amount of light that makes it down this far.

They swim toward the sunken cargo sub and soon it looms large in front of them. It appears that is suffered a catastrophic internal explosion. All of the escape pods have been jettisoned.

The team enters through the hole in the hull and look for the cargo hold. They find the hold, but upon entering, they discover a second hole ripped in the hull, likely from the impact with the rocks the sub landed on. They search the hold, and find some more weapons, gear and some explosives, which they grab. However, the power armor suit does not appear to be on board. Zen spots drag marks on the ocean floor outside the sub, indicating that something was dragged away to the north.

They team begins to head in the direction of the quickly fading drag marks when they notice seven large sharks swimming nearby. At first they are not worried as Collin assured them that the armored suits are shark proof, and there was no real reason for the sharks attack them.

But as the sharks get close enough to see clearly, they realize that these are cyber-form sharks. The sharks have exo-frames built around them with mechanical fins replacing their real ones. Their mouths flash titanium teeth and the top of their heads are covered with sensors and neuralware.

The sharks attack. The team’s armor holds against the bite attacks, but the deep scars the sharks’ teeth leave in the armor tell them that it’s only a matter of time before a bite gets through. Worse yet, the sharks are in their natural environment and easily maneuver around the team. The situation would have likely been hopeless, but the team’s zero-g combat training that they received almost exactly one year ago pays off. While being underwater is not the same as floating in orbit, its close enough that they can use what they learned to stay oriented and shoot straight.

The sharks are tough, but appear to be programmed to head home if injured enough. A few solid hits with a spear gun, or in Zen’s case, a few good stabs with a knife while cling to the back of a shark, prove enough to send the sharks packing. They consider following the sharks but realize that there is no way they could keep up.

The tracks in the ocean floor are now all rubbed away by the water, but they assume that whoever has taken the power armor suit likely headed directly in the direction of their destination. So the team begins to swim in the direction that the tracks have been leading.
After about 20 minutes, they come upon an underwater oil drilling operation. It is a grouping of domes connected by tubes. The center appears to be the main drilling operation, while habitats, offices, and storage domes are positioned around it.

They scope around the perimeter, eventually coming across an emergency hatch under one of the storage domes. Helios is able to bypass the electronic controls and open the hatch. Team climbs inside and find themselves surrounded by crates full of machine parts.

They move down a tunnel that goes to the main shipping/receiving dome as it’s the only dome with an airlock big enough for the power armor to be moved through. They arrive to find the suit standing on the dock with its pilot’s hatch open. Numerous cables and wires run from the suit to a computer console. A young man is apparently listening to music via implant as he types away at the computer terminal. Saito walks up behind him, and sees that he is trying to bypass the suit’s security protocols. He taps the man on the shoulder. As the tech turns around to see who it is, Saito decks him, causing him to collapse to the ground unconscious.

Zen is watching the tunnel from which they had come and hears security men mention the hatch alarm in the warehouse.

Riptide and Saito disconnect the cables and Helios climbs inside. He uses the suit’s vehicle link to connect with its controls. His own vision is replaced with that of the suit’s. A HUD appears in his vision, indicating the suit’s condition as well as its armaments which includes a laser, a mini-torpedo launcher, and a micro-torpedo launcher.

Down the tunnel, Zen can here the sound of the security men approaching, apparently now conducting a security sweep of the entire facility.

Helios takes a few awkward steps in the suit as the pilot chip in his processor begins to feed him information on how to pilot the suit. The team makes their way to the airlock and close the door just as the security team enters the loading dock. The men move to try and open the door, but Saito quickly starts up the lock cycle causing the airlock to flood with water. The security men would doom the facility if they tried opening the door now.

After about a minute, the chamber is completely flooded and the outer door opens. The team begins to swim their way out and are only a hundred feet or so from the airlock when the Demi-Gorgan’s sensors pick up seven incoming targets. Five are normal humans in scuba gear, the 6th is a full conversion cyborg, and the last is an attack mini-sub.

The team contacts their own sub for a pick up, but the pilot tells them he is not coming near their position until the attack sub is neutralized. The attack sub would make quick work of their stealth sub, leaving them with an awfully long swim home.

Helios really wants to use his torpedoes, but at such a short range, he would likely hurt his own team members as well. Showing a rare moment of restraint, he opts to stick with the laser.

The sub concentrates its efforts on the Demi-Gorgan, while the others engage the team. The cyborg’s body is designed specifically for underwater action, so despite its bulk, its surprisingly very quick and agile. Saito breaks away from the group and swims off on his own.

Riptide and Zen are fighting the other five attackers on their own and are clearly outgunned. First Zen’s armor is penetrated by a spear gun, and then Riptide’s is as well. As they were warned, although the wounds themselves were not life-threatening, the water was burrowing like a drill into their flesh. Zen soon passes out from the pain.

Helios attacks the borg in hand to hand in order t draw him off from the others. This allows the attack sub to swing around and draw a bead on the power armor suit. As it closes in for the kill, the pilot fails to notice Saito, who plants an explosive he borrowed from the downed cargo sub on the underside of the attack sub. He hits the detonator and a shock wave blasts through the water, momentarily stunning everyone.

With the attack sub destroyed and the others stunned, Saito calls in the stealth sub. He then makes his way to Zen and Riptide, who is now also unconscious, and drags them toward the incoming stealth sub.

Helios gets the full conversion borg in a death grip and begins crushing the cyborg. The cyborg is able to escape, but is critically damaged. With the attack sub destroyed, and the borg no longer combat effective, their adversaries decide to retreat.

Riptide and Zen are loaded into the stealth sub. Saito, despite having only basic first aid training, is able to patch up their wounds and keep them from bleeding out.

After several hours, the sub meets up with a larger cargo sub where the power armor suit is dropped off and the team is taken the rest of the way back to the Midway Freehold. The pay for these corporate jobs has been good, but the team is already growing weary of submarines. Continuing to work for OTEC though, means there are probably more in their future.

The team gets a couple months rest after narrowly avoiding a trap meant to kill them. They are not unscathed though, as most spend the time in medical recuperation. Especially Helios, who ends up having two cyberlimbs installed to replace his arms that were burned off. He is forced to have some of his other cybernetics removed as he is already borderline cyber psychotic.

November 13th, 2040

In the business news, global shipping company IHAG has gone bankrupt after Eurobank suddenly called in all of IHAG’s depts. IHAG had racked up the debt again OTEC in algae production and processing.

November 14th, 2040

OTEC, a corporation that specializes in ocean based power and food production, and CINO, the largest producer of ocean going ships, platforms, and other equipment begin competing to buy up IHAG stock and assets. The CEO of IHAG was set to sell a large chunk of stock to OTEC, but the deal falls through when he commits apparent suicide.

November 15th – November 18th, 2040

Zen begins packing up the belongings of Krissy and Roxie and places them in storage. She terminates their lease at the Mallplex. Ripper donates $25,000 to the O-Zoners to help them bolster their ranks.

November 19th, 2040

Word on the street is that Militech is looking to hire combat netrunners.

November 20th, 2040

Mysterious attacks on the New York and Tokyo stock exchanges leads to serious data corruption. One of the hardest hit companies is OTEC, which has to suspend its attempts to buy IHAG stock.

November 21st, 2040

Netwatch announces that the stock exchange hacks were traced to CINO operatives. Two CINO netrunners are arrested by Interpol.

November 22nd, 2040

CINO announces that it has acquired 36% of IHAG’s stock, while OTEC is still recovering from the data hack.

November 23rd, 2040

Word on the street is that OTEC has signed a security contract with Militech, while CINO has a contract with Arasaka. Riptide talks to Colin Fisk about some possible work opportunities. Colin says that is getting to be more likely every day. At dinner with Katrina Jones, she tells him that the corporations are talking about a possible corporate war between CINO and OTEC. What worries some as that it will pit Militech against Arasaka, two companies that already hate each other.

November 24th, 2040

In the news, a bomb detonated and destroyed the Berlin office of Interpol. The two arrested CINO hackers were inside at the time.

November 25th, 2040

OTEC gathers its largest shareholders in Antigua to put together a buyout package for IHAG stockholders.

*November 26th, 2040_

Cuba, announces that several of the Caribbean Islands have been infected with the Black Plague, including Antigua. Cuba has sent peace keepers and emergency workers to the infected islands.

Later that evening, Riptide gets a call from Colin. OTEC has 14 VIPs on Antigua that need to be extracted. Since Colin knows for a fact that the team has managed to infiltrate a well guarded island before, he proposed to Militech that they send the team in. He offers $75,000 and reminds Riptide that the team owes him. They settle on $100,000.

The plan is to fly to Barbados in the morning, where they will be helicoptered to a submarine that will take them to within two miles of Antigua. They will have to swim the rest of the way. The Plague outbreak is a hoax, but the presence of Cuban soldiers is very real. The VIPs are staying at the Grand Royal Antiguan Resort.

The team gets geared up, including some SCUBA skill chips for those who did not already have them. Ripper fires up his printing station and in a few hours has documents including passports, itineraries and fake hotel reservations. None of it would pass verification, but it should convince the average peace keeper that they have been on the island since before the quarantine was imposed.

November 27th, 2040

In the morning, the team boards a plane and takes the nine hour flight to Barbados. They meet Colin Fisk there, who has the chopper waiting. He reminds them that Cuba has Antigua under quarantine so no one is allowed to leave the island. Once they get a hold of the VIPs, which include OTECs CEO and a US Senator, they need to get them off the island. A sub can meet them to pick them up, but the sub will not come within 2 miles of the island. The sub will also not surface if there is an eminent danger. He hands Riptide a sat phone and escorts them to the chopper.

They head out to sea onboard the chopper. After an hour, the helicopter comes to a stop, hovering above the water. After a few minutes, a submarine breaks the surface. The helicopter lands on top and the team is transferred to the sub.

It’s a 12 hour trip in the cramped confines of the sub. The team uses this time to check their gear and review their forged documents.

November 11th, 2020

Shortly after sunrise, the sub emerges two mile off shore from Antigua. It remains exposed just long enough for the team, now fitted in full SCUBA gear, to get into the water and begin their trek.

Two hours later, the team emerges on a beach and quickly makes for some trees. They store their gear in a large copse of trees located on a golf course. They quickly change into their “vacation” gear, and make for the club house.

They spend some time at the clubhouse, getting something to eat and drink, talk with the locals, and recover their energy. They learn that no one has seen any actual signs of plague. Things are not much different than they normally are, other than no one being allowed on or off the island.

At 7:30 AM, they grab two taxis, one with Helios, Saito, and Riptide, the other with Ripper and Zen. They make their way north towards Deepwater Harbor, the main port of St. John. As they travel, they notice up ahead that traffic has stopped. The taxi driver explains that the Cuban peacekeepers have set up checkpoints at all roads that cross districts.

When the two taxis reach the checkpoint, soldiers first talk to the driver and then question the passengers. The team’s forged documents seem to pass muster, and after a short delay, they are allowed to move on.

When they reach the south side of Deepwater Harbor, the two taxis paths diverge. Helios Saito and Riptide head for Yepton Beach while Ripper and Zen travel to the Grand Royal Antiguan Resort.

At Yepton Beach, they inquire about chartering boats. The tour guides tell them that boats are still being allowed into the harbor but may not go beyond the entry point. The two watch a couple of patrol boats pass by. One seems to pass about every 20 minutes or so, and they appear heavily armed. Riptide and Helios discuss how they might get a better view of the harbor when Helios notices a flyer for parasailing.

Ripper and Zen arrive at the Resort and convince the security guard that they want to look around as they may wish to stay here on their next trip to Antigua. They stop at the main office and grab a map of the premises. They then head to a beach bar and have a drink. As they watch someone parasailing off in the distance near Deepwater Harbor, they strike up a conversation with the bartender.

During the conversation with the well-tipped bartender, they learn that two days prior, a couple of vehicles came and picked up the OTEC group. The trucks were marked as belonging to Mount St. John’s Medical Center, so everyone assumed they were being taken as a precaution due to the plague scare.

At noon, the team heads into St. John’s and meet up at Victoria Park, right near the Medical Center. They compare notes, and Helios reveals that while parasailing, he spotted a destroyer anchored just outside the harbor. The team begins to figure out how to get 14 people out of the medical center.

Although out of their element, Riptide and Ripper hit the streets and try to find out who the
local fixers are in town. They learn that if they want to acquire equipment off the grid, to talk to Mama Lola, who operates a pawn shop on the corner of High and Cross Streets, just a few blocks west of the park.

The two men head to the shop. They are about to go inside when they spot a cargo truck parked in a lot across the street painted with the markings for Mount St. John’s Medical Center. They call the rest of the team over. Helios watches the parking lot while the others go into the pawn shop.

Inside the shop, they see Mama Lola, fanning herself while chain smoking cigarettes. She is surrounded by several children who do not appear to hers. Hopefully, she runs a babysitting service.

They begin talking to her about what wares she is selling. Eventually they bring up the truck across the street. She says she has two trucks for rent, and for an extra fee, can be painted however they would like. Two days ago, the trucks were rented and handed been painted with the Medical Center’s logo per the clients request.

Outside, Helios is in the parking lot when he spots the second truck. He also notices a car parked across the street with an occupant who is taking his picture. The vehicle begins to pull away and Helios gives chase.

The car drives for several blocks, but thanks to traffic, Helios is able to keep up. Eventually, the car pulls into a parking lot. Helios blocks the car door and demands to know who the person is. The driver reveals himself to be Hans Jaeger, an Interpol agent.
In a surprise move, Helios reaches in through the open window and tries to grab hold of the agent. When Hans is able to deflect Helios’ grapple attempt, Helios pops his wolvers and stabs the agent in the chest repeatedly. A few moments later, the agent is dead. Looking around to confirm that there were no witnesses, Helios grabs the dead agent’s camera and wallet. Noticing that he has blood on his shirt, Helios removes the shirt and disposed of it. He then walks back towards the pawn shop.

Back at the pawn shop, the others make a deal with Mama Lola to rent the trucks, and have them painted to look like the local courier service. As part of the deal, she tells them that the person who rented the trucks was named Winston Lee. She figured him for an American ex-pat, likely a merc based on his military demeanor.

When they leave the pawn shop, they notice Helios is missing, but then see him come strolling up the street, oddly no longer wearing his shirt. They ask him why and he tells them he is just warm. Zen’s BS detector goes off and she gets him to tell them what really happened. Has Helios’ latest cybernetic additions finally put him over the edge? He was borderline psychotic before. Now hearing he just killed an Interpol agent makes them question his sanity.

They decide to deal with that issue later, and look through the camera that Helios had taken. Based on the images, it appears that Agent Jaeger has been surveilling Mama Lola’s for quite sometime. There are earlier images of a destroyed office building. Scrutinizing the pictures tells them that the photos had been taken in Berlin. They surmise that these are images of the destroyed Berlin Interpol office.

They next head to the last known address of Winston Lee. He lives in the Lower Gambles area of St. John. They reach his house in the early afternoon, but no one is home. Most of the team spend the afternoon staking out the house. Riptide uses his contacts to find out what he can about Winston Lee. What he turns up is that Winston does corporate work, mostly contracting out to security companies.

Around 5:00 PM, Riptide gets a call from Colin. OTEC has realized that they need the board members present in order to approve a buyout offer. The offer expires at end of day tomorrow. This is likely the whole reason behind the phony quarantine. It’s a delaying tactic to keep the key board members under wraps until it is too late. Riptide and his team needs to get the 14 people off the island no later than tomorrow evening.

The team decide that they no longer have the luxury of waiting for Winston to return. They decide to break in the house. A close inspection reveals that the house is rigged with explosives at all entry points. They decide to breach the back door. Zen disarms the bomb trigger and Ripper picks the lock.

Once inside, the house seems fairly normal until they get to the den. It contains numerous bomb-making materials as well as a card with the initials H.J. and a phone number printed on them. They take note of the fact that these are also the initials of the Interpol agent that Helios killed. They find a torn note page containing Mama Lola’s information and a photo of one of the trucks. They also find a delivery manifest for 12 automatic sentry machine guns. Finally they come across a photo of St. Vivian Richard’s Stadium, located in north central Antigua.

They make some basic inquiries and learn that the stadium is currently closed for renovation. If this is where the VIPs are being held, it makes them seriously rethink their exit strategy. Ripper and Zen head to the stadium, while Riptide, Saito and Helios head to the north shore to a place called Fitches Creek Bay.

At Fitches Creek Bay they find a fishing boat they can charter, but the operator says they can’t go very far with the quarantine in effect, though rumor is that it will be lifted in a couple of days. They only other boat is a power boat which is owned by a local resident. They try to get a better look via parasailing again, but are told that due to the proximity of the airport, no parasailing is allowed. Their options here are very limited, but this beach and the stadium are in the same district, so there would be no check points to cross.

Meanwhile, Ripper and Zen get a close as they can to the stadium. They are told by a security guard that the place is closed for renovations. They are not allowed to pass, but its close enough to see that the place is surrounded by sentry guns, a couple of patrolling jeeps, and an armored truck with a 75mm cannon. There is also a temporary barracks set up that some soldiers are seen coming and going from, but its not big enough to hold the VIP’s. They must be inside the actual stadium.

They also spot a farm house about a half mile away that appears to be abandoned. The north side of the stadium seems less well-defended as well. They decide to set up a base camp here. Saito and Helios head back to the golf course to retrieve their gear. They manage to get through the checkpoints without issue.

Riptide and Zen return to Mama Lola’s to see if she has any EMP grenades or signal jammers. She is not happy about them bothering her so late and tells them she has none of those things. They should check with Mama Danvers, who operates out of the lower gambles. She is more likely to have that stuff, but she will screw them on pricing.

NOVEMBER 12th, 2040

In the morning, they stop at Mama Danvers. She looks very much like a stereotypical white haired granny straight out of a lemonade commercial. She also does not have any EMP grenades or a signal jammer. She does however have an EMF grenade launcher and 5 grenades, you know, like all grandmothers do. They pay her inflated pricing and head back to Mama Lola’s.

At Mama Lola’s, they ask her if she has any IED type explosives. She says she had some landmines, but Winston Lee had bought up her stock. The team picks up the trucks, now painted to look like a courier service, and head out to the farm house. They then spend the next several hours formulating their plan.

When the sun sets, Riptide, Ripper and Helios get set up in the trucks. Zen moves to the tree line close to the northwest section of the stadium. Saito assembles is giant electro-thermo sniper rifle and gets into position inside the farm house.

As one of the jeeps drives along the road on the northwest side, the driver’s head suddenly explodes from the impact of an electro-thermo round. Before the gunner realizes what just happened, he suffers the same fate.

Zen then emerges from the tree line keeping the jeep between her and the closest sentry gun. She gets in the jeep and drives right up to the sentry gun, the jeep’s RID signal keeping the gun from firing. She then manually arms the first EMF grenade and attaches it to the gun. Within moments, the electrical discharge fries the weapon’s electronics. She then repeats the process at a second gun.

With the path now clear, the two trucks roll up to the less protected north side. This turns out to be an illusion however, as Helios’ truck hits a landmine, disabling it.

They leave the trucks outside as Riptide picks the lock to the door. He, Ripper and Helios head inside while Zen begins spotting and disabling land mines to clear a path out of there.
Once inside, they see a large banquet tent set up in the middle of the field. Riptide’s thermo-optic tells him the 14 VIPs are inside. Unfortunately, there are about a dozen soldiers and a suit of power armor guarding the tent. Since the detonation of the landmine, the element of surprise is no longer on their side. Helios and Riptide begin exchanging fire with guards. They have the advantage of cover from the stands while the guards are caught out in the open.

Zen continues to disarm mines and Saito tracks the armored truck that is now rolling up the road, its 75mm cannon beginning to aim towards Zen’s position. Inside the stadium, the power armor is powered up and sends a stream of high-velocity bullets flying at Helios, shredding everything around him, keeping him pinned down. Meanwhile other guards are beginning to flank Riptide.

Back at the farm house, Saito dials in his target with his cyber optic, patiently waiting for the right moment. When the moment arrives, a thought impulse travels from his brain, through his neural processor, down the implanted interface line, through the interface cable and into the sniper rifle. In response, the weapon launches an electro-thermo round out the window, across the farm property, over a road, into the stadium property where it strikes the vision port of the armored truck, shattering the armored glass and striking the driver.
The truck swerves off to one side. Zen uses the EMF grenade launcher to hit the truck. The grenade sticks, and moments later, the electronics in the vehicle are fried.

Inside, the power armor moves off from Helios and goes after Riptide, pinning him down with a hail of bullets. Helios takes advantage of the reprieve to target more of the guards.
Outside, Zen returns to disarming mines as Saito leaves the farm house to get into a position that lets him see into the stadium.

Riptide is able to take out the flanking guard but suddenly finds himself face to face with the power armor. The PA soldier swings his fist and hits Riptide, sending him stumbling backward but able to stay on his feet. Riptide realizes that one solid hit would likely kill him.
Helios sees one soldier head into the tent. He quickly follows him in and sees the man grab the Senator to use as a hostage.

The Power Armor swings at Riptide and misses. Riptide shoots at the suit, but doing only minimal damage. Suddenly the suit buckles as it is hit with a round from Saito’s gun. Another hit from the big rifle causes it to collapse.

Inside the tent, Helios begins to move toward the man and the Senator. The man tells Helios to back off, but he just keeps coming. Apparently he can recognize the look of a man riding the bleeding edge of cyber-psychosis, because once Helios is within reaching distance of the Senator, the man pushes the Senator towards Helios and runs away.

Moments later, the sounds of helicopters are heard in the distance, coming from the direction of the airport. Soon two small choppers can be seen approaching, armed with mini-guns and rocket launchers. Saito takes out one by hitting it in the tail rotor with his sniper rifle. The second one drops low to the ground and heads to the south side of the stadium to pick up the escaping guard.

With the area secured, they begin to round up the VIPs and load them on the one remaining truck. It’s a tight fit, but it the only option they have. They also grab the jeep and quickly get on the road. The chopper begins to follow them. The team realizes that the man who escaped was most likely Winston Lee.

They make there way to the beach, where the boat is chartered. The captain is not happy as they failed to mention that there would be a total of 19 people in their party. He gets snippy about it, but Saito draws his pistol to help convince the boat captain to cooperate.
Moments later, the boat is moving out into the water. They need to get two miles out before there is any chance of a pick up by the submarine. With the chopper watching from a safe distance, Cuban patrol boat comes around the bend and begins to close the distance. They being to launch mortars and rockets at the fishing boat.

With Helios at the helm, controlling the boat via his vehicle link, he is able to dodge most of the incoming fire. One rocket makes a glancing hit on the boat. Most of the canopy is destroyed and some minor injuries are suffered, but the boat remains sea worthy.
Saito takes a shot at the soldier manning the mortar and takes him out. Riptide opens fire on the patrol boat, punching holes in it with his ramjet pistols. The boat begins to take on water. Saito then shoots one of the rockets still in its tube, detonating the rockets and destroying the rocket launcher. With its weapons disabled and taking on water, the patrol boat backs off.

Saito takes a shot at the chopper but misses. The chopper backs off anyways as its clear they are not out of his effective range.

Riptide makes the phone call on his satellite phone. The team keeps a close watch on their surroundings as the fishing boat heads into the dark waters. Finally, they can see the submarine breaking the surface. They pull up along side, and the sub crew helps get the VIPs and the team aboard.

As the submarine submerges, the crew settles in for the trip home. Corporate work pays well, but when the corporations involved have the ability to quarantine island nations, and supply power armor to local troops, the stakes get awfully high. If a corporate war really is starting, then both the pay and the danger are about to ramp up.

May 18th, 2040

Riptide inquires with Katrina Jones regarding buying a full dossier on Harvis Renaldo. Turns out Infocomp charges $50,000 for that kind of information, more than the team is willing to spend on revenge.

Riptide than calls his old pal Colin Fisk, who is still working for Militech in Detroit and still bored. Riptide offers him the job of eliminating Harvis. Colin agrees for $25,000, but will need a few weeks before he can pay a visit to Night City.

May 19th – June 1st, 2040

All is quiet. The team devotes time to developing their now legit towing and salvage business.

June 2nd, 2040

The team learns that they have been awarded the city contract for all municipal towing needs. This single contract will triple the size of their operation.

June 3rd – June 13th, 2040

They quickly learn that legit businesses don’t pay nearly as much for all the work, but you get shot at less.

June 14th, 2040

Zen gets a call from Roxie. After some brief catching up, Roxy says that business for her and Krissy has been so good that they currently find themselves overbooked. She has a job they would like to pass on to the team if they are interested.

It seems that a night club called Block One opened up on the west side six months ago. A cybertech company called Hawkeye has been dumping tons of money into it. Roxy’s employer wants to know why. An easy $15,000 just to find out what Hawkeye’s interest is. But they could earn ten times that, if the team comes up with something tangible that the employer can monetize.

The team immediately begins some preliminary research. They learn that Hawkeye is based in Boston and specializes in neural-ware. Block One is owned by Cyrus Redblock, a low ranking mob man whose minions the team have recently tangled with. Word on the street is that Block One hosts some illicit gladiator fights.

That evening, Saito takes his friend Baja , the exotic prostitute, out to Block One. The front of the building is all darkened glass with “Block One” in giant purple neon letters. The music being played inside is blasted out of external speakers so that everyone within a five block radius can hear it.

The line is long, but eventually they get in. The first floor of the two story structure is one large dance club. A stage for live bands is on the far end.

After an hour of observation, Saito notices people handing cash to a doorman to be let through a non-descript door. Noticing that people seem to be paying $50 a head, he walks up to the doorman with Baja and hands him $100 cash. The doorman lets him through.

Beyond is a set of descending steps. Down in the basement they traverse a poorly lit hallway to a small arena where two men are duking it out. Bleachers surround the platform. On one side is a glass wall behind which more viewers watch. One observer sits in a most prominent chair. It is a woman who watches the match with a disinterested look.

One of the combatants gets the upper hand and stuns his opponent, knocking him to the ground. As he stands triumphant over his defeated adversary, all eyes look to the woman beyond the glass. She gives a thumbs down, at which point the winner fighter kills his opponent.

They head to the room beyond the glass and see that it is another bar area. The dress of the patrons and price of the drinks indicates that this is where the big spenders watch the fights. Saito speaks with some of the patrons and learns that there are 5 tiers of fighters. The top tiers only fight on Fridays and Saturdays. The current reigning champion of the ring is a man known as The Beast.

June 15th, 2040

The following evening, the team heads to Block One. Helios hangs out in the back to observe the comings and goings at the service entrance. The others head inside. When the time comes, they pay their fees and head to the lower level.

As they watch the fights, they mingle with the crowd to learn what they can. They learn that they club is managed by a man named Kristoff Masters. Cyrus Redblock has never actually been seen at the club. The team suspects that he owns the club on paper only.

They learn that the woman who judges the fallen fighters in called Lady Death. Rumor has is that she is the widow of one of the fighters who was killed. After some observation, they begin to suspect she does not particularly enjoy her role.

Saito runs into Kristoff Masters and speaks with him. Kristoff fits the role of congenial host well and tells Saito of how he moved to Night City from Boston to manage the club for Cyrus Redblock. He even openly tells Saito that the rumor about Lady Death is true and she works for the club as a way to pay off her husband’s debt to the club. How her husband acquired that debt is not explained.

June 16th, 2040

In the early morning hours as the last of the club staff are heading home, Saito watches the parking lot. When he sees Lady Death leave he approaches her. She is very reluctant to be seen talking to him, but agrees to meet him at the Mallplex later that day.

In the early afternoon, Riptide, Saito, and Zen head to the Mallplex. There they meet Lady Death whose real name is Laura.

She tells them that there is clinic on the upper level of the club. She has never been up there, but is told it is for providing first aid to the fighters. Her husband had some neural-ware installed in that clinic including an experimental reflex booster. The booster seemed to work, but made him emotionally unstable. Getting the implants is how he incurred the debt.

They offer to give Laura the money to pay her debt in exchange for her silence on the matter. She agrees.

The fighters are ranked by five tiers, Tier Five being new fighters and Tier One being their best like The Beast. Her husband wasn’t offered the implants until he reached Tier Two. If a fighter wins two fights in a row, he improves one Tier. If he loses two in a row, assuming he survives, he drops one tier.

Fighters are recruited at the club by a small Chinese man named Koda. He watches the crowd and picks out potential fighters. Everyone immediately looks at Helios, whose stature and grafted muscle makes him look like a cage fighter. He is not too thrilled with the plan that everyone is thinking of, but eventually agrees.

She tells them that also in the crowd are numerous solos on the payroll. They blend in and only act if there is trouble. In addition, the lower and upper levels have corporate security types keeping an eye on things.

They decide to take a two-fold approach. Helios will go inside and see if he can get the attention of Koda. Zen and Saito intend to scale the building to get to the roof access. The problem is there are a lot of people who hang out outside the building. They will need to create a little chaos first.

That evening the team returns to Block One. Helios arrives early and is the first on the scene. He is there a couple of hours before he is finally approached by Koda. Koda tells him about the fights and explains that at the bottom tier, he gets paid $2,000 per fight plus a $500 bonus if he wins. Tier One fighters make $6000 a fight plus winner bonus.

Around 10:00 PM upstairs, Riptide sets off some smoke pellets. People quickly notice the smoke and a panic begins to break out. Security tries to calm everyone down, but Riptide “panics” and riles everyone up again.

As a stream of people begins to emerge from the club causing much confusion, Zen and Saito on the opposite side begin their ascent. They use a grapple gun and rappel their way to the roof.

Once on the roof they find the roof access. It is a hinged metal door secured by a padlock on the inside. There also appears to be a magnetic switch sensor that will alarm when the door is opened.

Down in the basement, there is no panic. No one seems to be aware of the chaos going on above them. The final fight of the night featuring The Beast takes place. He is clearly cyber-psychotic, likely drugged to maintain some level of self-control. He is a hulking figure with grafted muscle and skin weave.

Right before the bell rings, he seems to go into a trance. When the bell rings, he launches at his opponent with frightening speed. He is incredibly fast for a man his size and begins to beat his opponent. Helios recognizes the effects of a reflex booster, but one more effective than he has ever seen before. A few moments later, the fight is over and The Beast chalks up another win.

Up on the roof, Zen and Saito realize there is nothing more they can do tonight. The crowd outside is already settling down and they don’t have the tools to get past the door. They quickly rappel back down to the ground and disappear into the night.

June 17th – June 18th, 2040

A little follow up planning is done as the team considers their next move. They are certain that Hawkeye is developing a new form of advanced booster-ware and is using the fights to test it out. Technically this is enough information to collect their $15,000 pay check, but after some debate, they decide to collect the big payday by getting their hands on some design data.

Helios is on the schedule to fight next Tuesday. They decide that he will attend his fight and try to get a tour of the clinic.

June 19th, 2040

Helios has his first fight before the smaller Tuesday Night crowd. His opponent is another bottom tier fighter having his first fight as well. The bell rings and Helios levels his opponent with a single punch.

Koda is clearly impressed. He shows Helios around the facility, including the clinic upstairs. The clinic seems pretty straight forward although there is a surgery bay which seems a bit much for a first aid clinic and a number of corporate security types hanging around. There is also a room with reinforced walls and a door with a high security lock on it. Whatever secrets this place holds are in that room.

June 20th – June 26th, 2040

The team plans their next move. After days of debate about whether to just let Helios work his way up the ranks and possibly get the booster-ware himself, or break in and steal what they are looking for, they decide to go with the latter.

They discuss how to get through the roof access. Saito has a line on some thermite they could use to burn through the door. They then realize that if they are going to use thermite, they might as well burn through the roof right into the vault.

Helios fabricates a mount and anchor system to hold a section of the roof in place as the thermite burns around it. The others acquire the thermite along with Demolitions and Electronic Security skill chips.

June 27th, 2040

Its fight night again for Helios. Zen and Riptide decide to be the ones to scale the roof and burn their way into the vault. Getting up there without a crowd detraction will be difficult but pulling another stunt like the smoke bombs will likely draw too much suspicion.

Saito finds a comfy spot on a warehouse room a half mile away and sets up his sniper rifle. Zen and Riptide will exit back through the roof and Saito will cover their exit.

Down in the basement, the bell rings and Helios second fight begins. This time it takes him a full 30 seconds to drop his opponent, but he is none the less victorious.

Up on the roof, Zen and Riptide set up the anchor system and attach it to the roof. Zen begins pouring the thermite but loses control of it. An unanchored chunk of roof falls through to the room below making a loud noise.

They quickly pour the rest of the thermite, cutting out a section of the roof. They jump down as they hear men approaching the door outside. It sounds like they are waiting on someone with a key code. The men outside don’t seem too alarmed, but time is short

Zen scoops up the detachable hard drives while Riptide grabs two glass cylinders with some type of Neural-ware mounted inside. They hope they have what they came for because someone has begun punching in the access code to get into the room.

They begin rappelling to the ceiling when the door opens. A woman in a lab coat followed by two security men enters the room. There is a moment of shock as they unexpectedly see two people climbing through a hole in the ceiling. The security men quickly draw their weapons and open fire, but Zen and Riptide are already clear of the hole.

They run to the back of the roof and quickly stow away the items they stole. As they begin to step over the roof edge to rappel down, the roof access swings open. A security guard steps out, spots them and aims his weapon. Before he can open fire, he is brought down by a head shot from Saito’s sniper rifle. The two quickly zip down the ropes and make a run for it,

Helios has won his second fight and has made some more easy money. He can’t help but feel that due to the theft of the tech by the others, this club’s days are numbered.

June 28th, 2040

Zen turns over the data and devices they stole to Roxy who in turn gives it over to her employer.

June 29th, 2040

Zen gets word from Roxy that her employer will pay the full $150,000. Everyone is happy about the big pay day, but Helios can’t help but feel he is being denied a lucrative career as a cage fighter.

May 5th, 2040

The team gets some information on Harvis Renaldo, including his daily schedule and habits. Saito spends some time in the park monitoring the Network 54 Tower. Getting to Harvis will not be easy.

May 6th – May 17th

The team is in need of a new base of operations after the old one was leveled. They decide that Jimmy Two-Teeth’s would be the ideal location. They approach Jimmy about selling his business to them. They settle on a price of $280,000. It puts a sizable dent in their financial resources, but the set-up is ideal for them, including their salvage work which they decide to go legitimate with.

Riptide decides to call his contact at the Night City impound yard to see about getting some towing business from the City. His contact tells him that West Side Towing has a contract with the City to do all of the towing. The good news is that the contract is up for rebid. The bad news is that West Side Towing is owned by Eurasia Bank, which has a seat on the city council. In Night City, only the mayor is elected by the citizens. The City Council is made up entirely of corporate representatives. Because of this, the rebid is only a formality; West Side will get the contract.

Considering how profitable that contract could be, the team decides to take measures to improve their chances of getting the contract. Saito tries to get a job at West Side but they are not hiring. They pay Mouse to hack into West Side’s system and do some sabotage. Towing the wrong cars is bad for business, especially if those cars belong to City officials and their families.

Riptide goes to work lobbying the other banks that have representatives on the council, offering them super cheap repo-rates as well as a chance to hurt their competitor. They agree.

Zen, Riptide, and Helios begin calling every corporate contact they have, looking for some help. Most agree to see what they can do. Tobius Luna can guarantee a vote from the Biotechnica rep, but of course they will owe him a favor.

May 18th, 2040

Tobius calls in that favor surprisingly soon. Riptide gets a call from Luna stating that Luna’s niece is in trouble. She needs help and Riptide is going to help her, no questions asked. If they get the job done, he will call it even on the city vote. Her name is Holly and they are to meet her at the Western Bar at 7:00 PM.

The team assembles and travels to the Western Bar. Holly, dressed in red leather and sporting short black hair, is waiting for them. She tells them they need to head to the west side on 29th Ave. They ask her why, but she gives little information.

On the car ride over, she asks how they know Tobius. Riptide simply states that they have done some work for him before. She asks their opinion of him. They try to be diplomatic, but she makes it clear she has little love her uncle. She tells them that Tobius hated his wife and if someone hadn’t murdered her aunt, Tobius would have likely done it himself eventually.

They arrive at their destination, which is two apartment buildings sitting close together, In between is a rundown park area, which features a rusty slide, a broken swing, and at this moment, a young man getting curb stomped by four men. Unfortunately, the man getting his ass kicked is Huey Green, the person they are there to see.

They approach and one of the men tells them to turn around and go the other way. They refuse and continue to approach. The one who warned them off pulls his pistol. Saito out draws him and shoots him in the shoulder, causing him crumble. Zen and Helios charge the other three.

A brief melee ensues, with the punks easily defeated. They question the punks and learn that they work for a man named Cyrus Redblock, a minor player in the Mob’s limited presence in Night City. Huey owes him $500. Holly pays the men the money owed, and the punks take their wounded and leave.

They get Huey to his apartment, which is littered with electronic parts and not a small amount of drug paraphernalia. Once he is patched up, Holly explains exactly what kind of help she needs.

A couple of years ago, she was with a crew that raided a property owned by Lantech Data Security. Huey and a Netrunner named Spatz Marino were also part of the team. The Raid had complications and Spatz was killed. They know this for a fact since they were able to recover his body

However, early this morning, Holly got a call from Spatz. It seems that Lantech had some sort of ICE that downloaded Spatz, or at least some part of him. Holly wants to get him back. Huey has a plug’n’play box that can download Spatz’s construct.

Spatz is being held on the server at Lantech’s Night City office. Spatz warned her that trying to get in from the Net is a no-go. Lantech’s data fortress security is near impenetrable, and would likely result in his deletion. They would have to download him onsite, in either the president’s office or one of the vice-presidents’ offices. Those offices are on the twelfth floor. All of the floors are locked out, but Spatz can disable the twelfth floor lockout. He can also disable the alarms but not the landline that summons an Arasaka tactical squad.

The team hatches a plan. Helios and Zen will go in and get themselves detained by the security guards. Hopefully the guards will detain them in the security office, which is where the Arasaka red phone should be. They will make their escape and disable the red phone while Saito, Holly, and Riptide secure the guards. Once that is done, it’s simply a matter of getting to the twelfth floor and doing the download.

In the late evening, they head to the Lantech building. Zen, dressed in a night club outfit runs into the lobby of the building claiming that a man is chasing her. One of the two security guards comes out from behind the desk and tries to calm her down.

Helios then comes charging in claiming that she has stolen his wallet. A heated argument ensues with Zen trying to hit Helios. The security guard tries to restrain her at which point Helios tries to hit her back. Soon both security guards are involved, restraining the two. Helios gets tased.

As they had hoped, the guards decide to detain them in the security office while they wait for the police to arrive. They hit their first complication as when they are taken into the security office, they discover two more security guards, who have been clearly enjoying the show via the CCTV system. Zen and Helios are handcuffed to a post.

When the guards in the security office return their attention to the monitors, Helios takes the lock picks that were concealed on Zen. He removes their cuffs. They see the red phone located in the center of the console, in easy reach of both guards. Zen indicates that they should grab the chairs that the guards are sitting on and pull them away from the phone.

At the same time, Zen and Helios jump up and grab the guards’ chairs. Zen pulls one just out of reach of the phone while Helios’s grafted muscles sends the other guards flying into the opposite wall.

While this is happening, Riptide, Saito, and Holly walk into the lobby. Saito draws his weapon on the two guards at the front desk. The guards surrender and are detained.

Inside the security office, Zen and Helios are able to disable and secure the two guards. Helios pulls the cover off of the red phone and disables the phone. Zen puts on her body armor and all but Riptide head up the elevator. He stays behind, and borrows one of the guard’s uniforms and credentials.

On the twelfth floor, they find that all of the vice-presidents’ offices have their doors wire with screamers. They also hear voices coming from one of the offices. The president’s office appears to not have any security on the door other than a very good lock. That lock is so good however, that Helios is unable to pick it. Instead he pops his wolvers and cuts off the door strike.

Saito takes a peek into the room and spots a defense laser mounted in the ceiling. The laser has a 360 arc of fire and will burn a hole in anyone who enters the room. Outside the office, Saito boosts up Helios, who sticks his head up above the drop ceiling. He is able to identify the conduit that powers the laser. He is confident that he can disable it.

Unfortunately, as he is working on disabling the laser, a piece of the drop ceiling frame breaks off and falls to the floor making a loud noise. He quickly finishes his work as one of the office doors down the hall opens.

Saito and Holly move into the president’s office. Zen remains around the corner by the elevator. Coming down the hall is what appears to be a body guard. He sees Zen and immediately attacks. Helios rushes back out of the office to help her.

Holly plugs the box into the president’s computer and the box does its job and begins to download Spatz’s construct. Saito takes aim from the doorway and headshot’s the body guard from the middle of the melee.

Just then the door down the hall again opens. Another bodyguard yells to someone they cannot see to go hide, and then opens fire on the team. Shots are exchanged. The body guard then dives across the hallway into another office where he closes the door. The team monitors that door while Holly continues the download.

Downstairs, Riptide hears a siren followed by a squad car pulling up. He figures the cops wouldn’t run lights for a disorderly conduct so whoever is holed up on the twelfth floor must have called the police.

Two police officers come into the building and ask about what is going on up on the twelfth floor. Riptide, dressed as the security guard says there is no problem that he is aware of, but they can check the twelfth floor cameras from the security office. Riptide takes his time fumbling for the keys.

As Holly completes the download, Zen changes back into her night club attire. They head into the elevator with Saito and Holly hiding up on top of the car and Helios hiding off to the side. The elevator drops down to the first floor. As another siren can be heard approaching, Zen stumbles off of the elevator pretending to be a prostitute having just been quite busy at the raging office party on the twelfth floor. One of the officers tells Riptide to come up with him while the other stays behind.

After they head up, Zen tries to exit the building. The remaining officer tries to get her to stop. When she refuses, he tazers her.

The elevator that the team came down in still held Holly, Saito and Helios. They rig the elevator car so that it would to return to the first floor and then the door would open and remain open.

Riptide and the officer exit the elevator on the twelfth floor and immediately spot the body of the bodyguard. Riptide acts suitably surprised. The cop orders Riptide to return downstairs while he clears the floor. A police AV hovers outside shining a light into the
building. Riptide heads back down.

Back on the first floor, he steps out and speaks to the other officer. The first elevator then arrives and the door opens and remains open. The police officer steps into the elevator and looks around. Saito jumps down from the scuttle hole and knocks out the guard. Just then a second squad car pulls up.

A few moments later the two more officers enter the lobby. Riptide again finds himself fast talking the cops. Eventually they grow tired of his stall tactics and demand to be let into the security office. They also tell him that SWAT is only moments from arriving.

Just then another elevator opens and Saito steps out in the officer’s uniform and tells the other two that they need to assist the officer up on twelfth floor. They jump in the elevator and head up.

The first elevator again opens, and Holly and Helios hop out. They pick up Zen and beat a hasty retreat out of the building. More squad cars begin showing up, but the team fades into the shadows as they go to their vehicles to leave.

They rendezvous at Huey’s where the drug addict is able to verify that Spatz’s construct is safely inside the box. Holly thanks them for their assistance. For once, her uncle came through for her. How nice that he gets the credit.

April 28th, 2040

Riptide gets a call from a man calling himself John Coral. He calls Riptide “George” and says that he has a procurement job that he would like to hire the team for. He says to meet him at the Carter Lounge in the Highcourt Plaza Hotel at 10:00 PM.

Riptide, Ripper, and Saito go to the hotel. They are stopped by security, but are waived through once they verify who they are there to meet. This is very surprising since normally Ripper would not get in with his implanted weapons.

They go to the Carter Lounge and are escorted to table six, where they meet a middle aged, well-dressed man, who introduces himself as John Coral. When Riptide asks how John knows his real name, John simply says that he paid for top quality information. Although he buys a round of drinks, he skips the small talk and goes right to the deal.

John is the talent agent for Shauni Kalnier, a popular brain-dance star, number one in fact, according John. Her contract is coming up for renewal, and negotiations will soon begin. The problem is that DMS has gotten their hands on some early videos that John describes as “embarrassing”. He believes DMS intends to threaten to release these videos as leverage to get her to agree to a contract that greatly favors DMS.

John wants to pay the team $90,000 to break into DMS and steal the videos. In addition to the cash, Shauni is willing to let them use her fashionable West Hill condo for a year. He gives them 24 hours to think about it, while he works on getting some security info on DMS. They agree to meet back at the Carter lounge the following evening.

April 29th. 2040

Zen goes to her cubicle at Infocomp and does some research. It turns out that Ms. Kalnier is actually number two in the brain-dance ratings, behind Network 54’s Catherine Bergenox. Records on Kalnier make no mention of her having an agent named John Coral. Kalnier is getting ready to shoot the next season of her brain-dance releases.

Mouse, who has been talking non-stop about his newly acquired Microtech military-spec combat assault cyber-deck, that he spent most of his life savings on, jumps at the chance to use it. He dives into the Net, and easily cracks into the Highcourt Plaza Hotel’s data fortress. There he discovers that table six was reserved by a man named Harvis Renaldo, who was staying in room 2020. The billing address for his room is in the name of S.K. Holdings located in Night City.

Apparently John Coral is not who he says he is. They debate what the man is really up to, but decide that as long as the pay is real, they don’t care.

The debate is interrupted by the return of Helios, who has been gone for several weeks, trying to sell the helicopter. He tells the condensed version of a story involving a lesbian biker gang, the Church of Elvis, and a cyborg who thought he was a toaster. Most importantly though, he returns with $165,000 from the sale of the chopper. They fill him in on what has transpired so far, and they get ready to go meet Harvis.

That evening, they return to the Carter Lounge. Riptide is all too happy to turn the tables and greet Harvis using his real name. Harvis does not seem phased and dismisses any questions regarding his intentions with the tapes. He says that all that matters is that he wants the tapes, and he will pay them an increased price of $100,000 to do it. They agree.

They also agree that the job will go down the following evening. They will meet at the park that is a couple of blocks from the DMS building and hoof it on over. Harvis insists that he comes along to make sure they grab the right tapes.

April 30th, 2040

As per the plan, they meet at the park at 11:00 PM. They head over to the DMS tower, which features a public mall on the first floor. In the back of the mall is a row of security elevators that each contain one guard and requires a security key to get to the DMS levels.

Right on cue, a group of girls from the Golden Saloon start getting rowdy by the water fountain, causing the mall guards to become engaged in the situation. Unfortunately, one mall guard near the elevators does not move. They are not sure what his story is, but apparently checking out hot chicks frolicking in a fountain is not on his list of interests.

Zen approaches him and tells him that she saw one of the girls take someone’s wallet. That gets him moving, and he heads off toward the fountain.

They call one of the elevators and when the door opens, they bum rush the guard inside. He tries to trigger the alarm, but Mouse has been hanging out in the building’s computer network and has disabled the alarm. He has also disabled the floor lockout, so with the push of a button they head to the 27th floor.

When the elevator door opens, Riptide steps out wearing the uniform of the elevator guard. He sees a 3rd shift receptionist looking very bored. He strikes up a conversation with her. Now she is bored and annoyed. The others emerge from the elevator and head to one of the secured doors. The receptionist tries to get Riptide to stop hitting on her for two seconds to find out what they are doing up there, but when the secured door opens for them, again thanks to Mouse, she gives up and goes back to trying to give Riptide the brush off.

The others pass through a series of offices. All are empty save for a few programming execs working on scheduling.

The security information that Harvis acquired lets them steer past a couple of occupied rooms as well as a high security corridor. Eventually they are in the tape vault. Harvis uses a code he has somehow procured to have the automated system bring up the tapes he wants. Once secured, they make their way back out.

On the way back through the programming room, one of the workers questions what they are doing there, but they fast talk their way out of it. When they get back to the receptionist area, she again considers questioning them, but realizing that their leaving means Riptide goes with them, she decides not to hinder their hasty exit.

They return to the park where Harvis makes the bank transfer that ensures that they get their money. They then part ways.

April 31st, 2040

The day is quiet, although towards the end of the day, word on the street is that some valuable Shaunie Kalnier tapes were stolen and DMS is out for blood.

May 1st, 2040

Early before sunrise, everyone is asleep except for Saito who is milling about in his room. He hears the distinct sound of an AV approaching and goes across to the hall to wake Zen. She is barely out of bed, when the AV begins firing rockets into the building.

Mouse’s room is the first to be hit, followed by Riptide’s. Both are badly injured in the strikes, but manage to stay mobile. Everyone makes it into the center hallway as the AV begins to swing around the building.

Helios, who sleeps in the garage, opens up the manhole cover in the center of the shop floor that leads down into the sewer. They begin to climb down, except for Zen and Riptide who decide to make a break for it on their motorcycles.

The AV opens fire with rockets into the garage area. The heavy garage doors make for better protection than the apartment windows, and they avoid any further injuries.

Zen and Riptide race out of the shop and head down the street. When the AV pursues, they split up. The AV follows Zen and fires its front cannon, shooter her motorcycle out from underneath her. She slides along the pavement, but is able to recover in time and disappear into an alley before the AV can find her.

The team members in the sewer decide to double back. When they get close however, they hear the sound of many boots up above. They decide to again move away from the building, which proves to be a wise choice as several frag grenades are dropped down the manhole.

Zen finds her way to one of her safe houses. Saito stays at the apartment of his exotic prostitute friend Baja, Helios stays at Jimmy Two Teeth’s, and Riptide rents a coffin. They also inform Jarvic and Ripper to be alert for trouble

They eventually get in touch with Death in the Afternoon, who inform them that a team of DMS security men searched the building before thoroughly destroying it with several satchel charges.

In the late afternoon, they meet at Fast Eddie’s Pool Hall, the pool hall that Ripper has taken a financial interest in. He has his friends in the O-Zoners gang watch the neighborhood.

After much discussion, they decide that they need to make peace with DMS. But in order to do that, they need something to leverage. Zen heads off to Infocomp to do some research, while Saito decides to check out S.K. Holdings. Riptide, meanwhile, makes a date with Katrina Jones.

Saito arrives at the address and finds it to be a small multi-tenant commercial building. He enters and heads up to the fourth floor and finds the office for S.K. Holdings. It looks like there is security on the door so he heads up another flight of stairs and goes out the roof access. He free climbs down to the fourth floor window of S.K. Holdings. It appears that both the door and the windows have screamer alarms, with the door also having stun strobes.

Saito shimmies his way over to the neighboring suite. This one appears to be empty, so he breaks the glass and enters. He then goes to the wall that is adjoined to S.K. Holdings and begins to kick a hole in the wall. The drywall and aluminum studs don’t offer much resistance, and in a few minutes he is inside the suite.

At Infocomp, Zen does some research on Harvis Renaldo. She learns that he is a Network 54 executive who lives on one of the residential levels of the Network 54 Tower.

Back at S.K Holdings, Saito finds a treasure trove of interesting paperwork. He finds a document listing the main stars of the braindance market and their market share. Catherine Bergenox holds 44% of the market, with Shauni Calnier in second place with 29%.

He also finds a document from a Jonathan Baker-White, an investment advisor stating that if DMS were to experience an unexpected set back in the Brain Dance market, it could cause their stock to drop enough to be bought up at a bargain price. Once the stock rebounded, which it inevitably would, a substantial profit could be made. The trick would be knowing when the setback would occur.

Saito finds a dossier on all of the team members, which includes their real names and lists the address of their former home. The assessment portion of the file describes them as “resourceful and well-connected, but not too intelligent.”

There is a voice on the answering machine from a man named Stromberg telling Harvis that the teams, including Ms. Bergenox are in place and waiting the green light.

Finally, in the garbage can, he finds a pistol and a note listing that “Plaza Concord, by the statue, $9,000.”

Saito heads over to the plaza, on the south side of the city and finds the statue. There is nothing to see, but he does spot a homeless man who has set up residence in a large box across the street.

The homeless man tells him that a few nights ago, a helicopter landed and a man matching Harvis’ description got out. He met a woman by the statue, and they exchanged envelopes. They then turned and walked away from each other. The man, however, before getting into the helicopter, turned and shot the woman in the back. The man left via the helicopter, and within an hour, body scavengers made off with the woman’s body.

It is clear that the homeless man is hiding something, so after a little bribery, Saito gets him to admit that he had checked over the body and found an ID on the woman identifying her as Theresa Malcolm, a DMS employee. He also admits to taking the envelope which turned out to contain $9,000 in cash. The homeless man wonders aloud what kind of person pays someone, and then kills them and doesn’t take the money back.

The team gets back together and discusses their options. They believe that Theresa was Harvis’ source for the DMS security information. It was time to get in contact with DMS.

May 2nd, 2040

Zen does some more research and learns that the DMS CEO is Donald Sizemore. Mouse hacks the DMS network and drops a message into Donald’s terminal telling him that they are the ones who stole the tapes as part of some contract work for Harvis Renaldo of Network 54. The message details the letter regarding the potential stock hit DMS would take. The message gives a contact number for a burner phone.

May 3rd, 2040

Riptide answers the burner phone when it rings and finds himself talking to a DMS security operative named Terry Neuman. Riptide fleshes out the information regarding what happened, and explains that he is sharing this information because Harvis screwed them after the job. All the team asks for in return is that DMS stops going after them. Terry thanks him for the information, but says that DMS doesn’t know who they are and so has not made any move against them.

Death in the Afternoon had said that the security men who attacked their HQ had DMS uniforms on. This does not mean they were really DMS, and assuming Neuman wasn’t lying, they just wanted people to think they were DMS. This points everything back at Harvis, who they established as having a record of paying people for jobs and then killing them.

May 4th, 2040

The team decides that they need Mouse to hack into the Network 54 datafortress and find an itinerary for Harvis Renaldo and Catherine Bergenox. Mouse knows that the datafortress has an AI, multiple sysops and serious Black Ice, but after spending the last week bragging on how awesome his new cyberdeck is, he can’t hardly back down on the challenge.

He dives into the datafortress, and after a few close calls, including an almost fatal run in with a Lich program, he returns with an interesting document. He found a memo indicating that Harvis intended to hire a team of mercenaries to steal the master tapes for the next season of Shauni’s braindance dramas. They would then have Catherine Bergenox tape new versions of the plotlines. Bergenox would have twice the content while Calnier would have none. He would then leak to DMS the identity of the mercs, which would have DMS chasing after the mercs. By the time they realized what happened, the new content would be released and Bergenox would be ruined.

Things apparently did not go as planned, since the men who attacked the team were not actual DMS guards. Mouse suggests that since they had revealed to Renaldo that they had learned his true identity, he could not afford to give them up to DMS so Renaldo tried taking them out with a fake DMS unit.

It is also noted in the memo, that he was using Infocomp to find an edgerunner team. Zen asks to see the dossier that Saito had taken from the S.K Holdings office, and immediately recognizes its format as an Infocomp report. This report could only have been written by one person, Katrina Jones.

Running on the assumption that she has sold them out, Riptide makes another dinner date with her. When he picks her up however, they don’t go to a restaurant. Instead, he takes her to a building owned by the O-Zoners, where Saito and Helios are waiting.

She realizes that something is up and demands to know what is going on. When they confront her about the dossier, she admits that she wrote it, but the idea that she sold the information to Harvis is ridiculous. She works for Infocomp, an information gathering company. Buying and selling information is what they do and her job is to gather that information. They knew her specialty is gathering info on edgerunner teams. She wrote the report on them, submitted it to Infocomp, and they then sold it to Harvis Renaldo.

They quickly realize that what she is saying makes sense. She demands that Riptide take her to dinner like he promised. Saito and Helios are both glad they won’t be attending that meal.

The pieces are falling into place. It becomes clear that if they want payback, they need to get to Harvis Renaldo.

February 19th – April 8th, 2040

The team has had six weeks to recover after the “terrorist” incident at the Night City Harbor. Zen has spent most of that time in the hospital. Helios is still off trying to sell the helicopter. Riptide has taken over management of the Golden Saloon and Ripper finally returns from the Crystal Palace.

April 9th, 2040

Riptide gets a call from a restricted number. Using a voice modulator, the caller says to meet him at Warehouse 214 at 11:00pm if interested in some work. The job is to find someone and the pay is $50,000. The caller then hangs up.

Riptide informs the others. Saito heads to the warehouse a couple of hours early to scope things out. It looks like a typical non-descript harbor warehouse.

About 10:45 pm a solo arrives and enters the warehouse. At 11:00 pm, Riptide and Zen show up.

The solo who got there early used to go by the name Crusher, but now just prefers his real name, Wilbur. Wilbur says he retired from edgerunning several years ago. Now he has a wife and a couple of young kids, and has never been happier. He gives the two some advice, saying that they should get out before they make so many enemies that they have to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders waiting for someone to seek some payback. They ask Wilbur why he is here if he is retired. He says he owes someone a favor.

Outside, Saito watches as a short, well-dressed Japanese man arrives and enters the warehouse. Once inside, the Japanese man explains that this is just the rendezvous point. The meeting will take place in another warehouse.

He leads them to a back entrance and motions for Wilbur to lead the way. As Wilbur is about to open the door, the Japanese man pulls out a pistol and shoots Wilbur in the back of the head. The others stand in stunned silence as Wilbur’s body hits the ground. The Japanese man apologizes and says that Wilbur had been asked here on another matter, which has now been resolved. As they step over his body and head outside, Wilbur’s last words echo in their minds.

They travel in the dark, narrow walkways between the warehouses until they come to Warehouse 023. A cursory inspection reveals that this warehouse is armored and has some expensive security installed.

They are lead inside and taken to a room in which one wall is a large mirror. The modulated voice from the phone call comes over some hidden speakers and thanks them for coming.

The voice says that they are looking for a courier that they have been following all over the world, who has now apparently come to Night City. His name is Fredrick Wells, and they would very much like to speak with him here at the warehouse. They are hiring the team because they want some local talent looking for him, and the team comes highly recommended.

They are to bring Wells back here in the next 24 hours. The pay is non-negotiable, but they do agree to pay $20,000 up front. The employer does not give them much to work with. The Japanese man gives them a photo of Wells and explains that he has one known associate, a solo named Lorenzo, who was last seen in Italy.

Saito heads out to The Afterlife where he runs into Krissy and Roxie. They mention that they remember Wells, and that he used to have a girlfriend named Katrina Jones. Saito also places a call to Apoc who promises to do some digging,

April 10th, 2040

The team continues to work their contacts. They learn that Katrina Jones is an Infocomp employee. Zen does some digging at the office and finds Katrina’s personnel file is classified. Apparently she is one of their top operatives, specialized in gathering intelligence on local edgerunner teams.

Saito hears from Apoc who says that Frederick Wells used to be in U.S. Intelligence until he got kicked out for embezzling. He speaks a half dozen languages and has a knack for blending in. He was last known to be doing some corporate work in Japan.

Word on the street is that in the old days, Wells used to hang out at Fast Eddie’s Pool Hall. Saito and Ripper decide to head down there and take a look around. Fast Eddie’s clearly has seen better days. It’s run down, with only a couple of tables that aren’t all ripped to hell. One of those tables is being used by the only two people playing.

Saito and Ripper play on a neighboring table before striking up a conversation. One of the men is the owner, Fast Eddie, and the other in known as Toothpick. They talk about the old days and Ripper brings up Wells. Eddie says Wells is supposed to be in Japan. He did come back for a bit a couple of years ago. He had a Japanese girl with him named Michiko. Wells also used to hang out at a nasty solo bar called The Garbage Pail. Wells hasn’t been seen in years however.

Zen and Riptide head to the address that they were able to get for Katrina Jones. It’s a rather nice looking secured apartment complex. They hit the buzzer and a woman appears on the screen. She looks older and pretty rough. She also sounds less than pleased to be talking to them. It takes some cajoling, but she agrees to let them up.

When she opens her apartment door, they find that she looks nothing like the image on the screen. She is tall, slender and attractive, and comes across quite friendly. She tells them that she and Wells dated years ago back when he was still with U.S. Intelligence. She says that he thought she ratted him out to the feds which is why he dumped her. She seems a little bitter about it yet. She also confirms what the guys learned at Fast Eddie’s as well.

She recognizes Zen from work and keeps things professional. She seems to hit it off with Riptide however, and a bit of flirting, the two exchange contact information.

They have Mouse dig around the airline databases to see if Michiko’s name appears. Sure enough, it does. It seems she flew into town a few days ago. He can’t find what hotel she is staying at however.

Early in the evening, the team heads over to The Garbage Pail. True to its name, the floor is covered in garbage, some of it reeking badly. A metal band screams away behind armored glass on one end of the long narrow establishment.

With Helios out of town, Riptide fills in as the wheel man and remains outside in the van. Ripper hangs out at the front door, Zen sits at the bar, and Saito finds a dark corner.

Around 10:00 PM, Zen spots Frederick Wells sitting at the bar. She heads over to him and strikes up a conversation.

She barely gets past hello when he suddenly has a surprised look on his face. A moment later a bullet hole appears in the middle of his forehead. As he collapses a large Arab man pushes passed Zen as he puts away his pistol.

Ripper starts to move in as he spots two more Arabs moving from the front of the bar towards Well’s body. Riptide moves the van into the alley preparing to pick them up from the service entrance.

The Arab checks over Well’s body and takes a key and places it in his pocket. Saito walks up to the Arab and greets him in Arabic. During that moment of distraction, Zen tries to lift the key from the Arab. Although she is able to get the key, it is not without him noticing. When he turns to grab her, Saito grapples him. The other two Arabs see what is happening and draw their weapons.

Ripper decides that what this situation needs is some chaos, so he chucks a flash-bang grenade into the middle of the crowd.

Being a solo bar, most of the people immediately draw weapons. Nobody wants to be in the middle of a close range free-for-all, so the crowd starts moving towards the exit. Saito disables the first Arab and Zen moves past the other two.

With the sudden change of plans, Riptide pulls back out of the ally and pulls in front of the bar as people begin pouring out. Riptide looks in his mirror just in time to see a SUV come rolling up clearly intent on pushing him out of the way. He engages the parking break as the SUV rear ends him. He immediately gets out and begins yelling at the driver for hitting him. The two Arab men in the SUV produce submachine guns and order him to move his van. Riptide gets back in, and tries to move the van, but having intentionally left the parking brake on, he is barely moving.

Inside the bar, a mass of bodies has begun trying to squeeze out the front door. Zen and Ripper find each other and try to blend into the crowd. Saito jumps over the bar and heads toward the service entrance.

The driver of the SUV slowly pushes Riptide’s van out of the way as the man in the passenger seat scans the crowd coming out. When Riptide sees Ripper and Zen emerge, he releases the brake and rolls away. The men in the SUV fail to spot the two edgerunners.

Ripper and Zen make their getaway. Riptide is only able to get so far with the van before the wrecked rear end makes it undriveable. He eventually meets up with the other two. Saito calls Buckshot Betty and asks her to pick him up.

Riptide calls their employer to explain what happened. The voice on the other end is clearly unhappy and says he will call back shortly. A few minutes later, he calls back and says they can still earn their pay. Wells had stolen some “genetic data” from their employer, and if they can retrieve this data, they will be paid the remainder of their fee.

Zen checks the key that she took. It’s for coffin 246 down at the EZ Overnighter. Once they have everyone back together, they head over to the Overnighter.

While the others remain on watch, Zen heads to the coffin. An inspection of the door reveals that it’s rigged with a bomb. Although trained in demolitions, she lost much of her memory of that training when she had her memory scrambled at the Biotechnica facility. So she radios Saito and he comes up to disable the bomb.

Once inside the coffin they find a security briefcase and a carry all with an ugly suit in it. They take the two items and head back home.

Saito contacts Apoc again and asks if he has any intelligence on some Arabs that have come America recently. Apoc says he will look into it.

Once at home Zen inspects the suit while the others work to bypass the biometrics lock on the briefcase. The suit contains a business card for Ralph’s Rock Emporium. Other than that, it’s just an ugly suit.

Once the briefcase is breached, they take a look inside. They find a broken battleglove, a credit chip, a voice scrambler, and a locker key for the Night City Metropolitan Airport. They decrypt the information on the key card and figure out which locker it’s for.

They look at the business card and notice something written on it that they can’t quite make out. Saito switches his cyberoptic to ultraviolet and sees a message written on the card that says “April 11th, 7:00pm, Elvis 2”

April 11th, 2040

In the early morning hours, they head down to the Airport. There they find the locker and open it up. Inside is another garment bag full of an odd assortment of suits. They find another credit chip, an envelope with $3,000 cash, a passport for a Frederick Du Boise from Paris, with Well’s picture, and a box containing a pair of diamond earrings.

They leave the airport as Riptide makes some calls. He is able to find a fence who is willing to look at the earrings in the middle of the night. The fence inspects the earrings and runs them under a spectrograph. He says the diamonds are artificial, but high quality. Other than that, there is nothing of interest about them.

Later in the morning, Saito hears from Apoc. Apoc says a Saudi prince has sent some men to Night City to acquire a clone. Whether the intent is to buy the clone or steal it, or what it is a clone of, Apoc does not know.

In the late afternoon, they head to Ralph’s Rock Emporium. There is a sign outside the lobby forbidding weapons, weapon implants, or body armor. As Ripper has implanted wolvers, he opts to wait outside.

The others walk in, buy their tickets and wonder about the emporium. The place is made up of vid screens showing old rock performances and documentaries, while numerous small stages about the place contain animatronic versions of rock bands playing their classic hits. One end of the main hall is dedicated to The Beatles, while the other end is dedicated to Elvis Presley. There are three versions of Elvis, depicting the three eras of his career.

Saito guesses that the middle Elvis is Elvis 2, and begins to look about. He sees nothing out of the ordinary about the display. Then at 7:00 PM, a Japanese woman walks up to the middle Elvis, and waits there. Saito approaches her and says he is there on behalf of Fredrick Wells. She asks for the money and he gives her the envelope of cash. She in turn hands him an envelope.

While this is happening, Riptide and Zen spot two Arab men approaching from the office area of the Emporium sporting submachine guns. When they spot the woman that Saito is talking to, they open fire. She and Saito dive behind the Elvises for cover. Saito manages to avoid being hit, but the woman is not so lucky.

Riptide and Zen are able to get behind the men and grapple them. However, a third Arab emerges from the office.

Ripper enters the lobby when he hears the gun shots. As people begin to flee the building, he decides to risk all of the warning signs and enter the showroom with his weaponry. The moment he crosses the warning line, an alarm goes off. There is a sudden flash of light and his head is hit with a jolt of pain and the room spins. He is able to shake off the worst of it as he sees people collapsing around him from the neural scrambler he just triggered.

He stumbles into the showroom and attacks the third gunmen. Saito comes from behind his cover and helps Zen and Riptide deal with the two they engaged with.

As the police sirens are heard in the background, the Arabs are either disabled or fleeing. Saito goes to check on the Japanese woman and finds that she is dead. He grabs her purse and they flee the scene.

Going through her purse, they find her passport identifying her as Michiko. She has a guest card for the Highcourt Plaza Hotel located downtown. The envelope contains a registration code for a ship in the harbor, but there is no way to tell what those numbers represent.

Mouse says that the Highcourt is one of the best secured hotels in town. Getting into her room requires the card, a PIN number and her voice imprint. Plus, hotel security has her picture on file. When the person carrying her key enters the hotel, the system grabs an image from the security camera and displays it next to her photo so that the guards can see if the right person is carrying the key card.

Ripper has the gear to get past the PIN code and voice ID. Zen puts her makeup skills to use and after an hour she bares a passing resemblance to Michiko. Hopefully it is enough to fool hotel security.

She goes to the hotel with Riptide. They enter the lobby and make it the elevator without being stopped. Swiping her hotel card, the elevator takes them to the eighteenth floor. As Riptide keeps a look out, Zen uses Ripper’s decrypter to bypass the lock.

Once inside they do a quick search. It appears that Michiko was packed and planning to leave right after the exchange. There is a copy of an invoice for Shift It movers to provide a truck tomorrow night at the west harbor. The purchaser is listed as Jean Martine. There is also a voice mail on her room phone. It’s from Lorenzo stating that he is moving the package tomorrow night whether Wells shows up with the buyer or not.

They exit the hotel and head to the west harbor. Mouse contacts them and says that after hacking the harbor master’s computer, the registration number belongs to a yacht called the Lollipop 5 located at Pier 47. The ship is registered to a Jean Martine. They arrive at the harbor to see that Pier 47 is located in the commercial ship zone. There is no getting in there without the proper paper work.

They stop at home to do a little forgery work. With the proper paperwork generated, they drive to the harbor. Once inside they head to Pier 47. There they see a guard posted at the gang plank and another on the deck. Riptide does a thermo-imaging scan of the yacht and sees five more people on the yacht as well as what appears to be a large horse.

They approach the ship and ask to be let on board. The guard refuses and after a few minutes of arguing, one of the people in the cabin emerges. They recognize him by his voice as Lorenzo. They say that they are there to pick up the horse, but Lorenzo says that until he has his cut which he says is $10 million, the horse doesn’t leave the ship. Furthermore, if he does not have the money by midnight tomorrow, he is leaving the city to find a buyer on his own.

Riptide calls their employer to advise them of the situation. He says if they can provide a truck to transport the horse, his team will get the horse out from the custody of the men guarding the ship. The employer agrees.

April 12th, 2040

The better part of the day is spend spent planning how to get the horse off of the boat. A frontal assault is initially proposed, but concerns about getting the horse killed shoots down that idea. Eventually a more stealthy approach is agreed upon.

In the evening they rendezvous with the truck. Once inside the harbor, Ripper dons some scuba gear and dives into the water. When they get to the edge of the Pier, Saito gets out and gets into position with his sniper rifle. Riptide and Zen remain in the truck as it slowly drives down the pier.

Ripper emerges from the water and climbs the mooring lines to get to the deck. Doing a thermo-scan he sees that two of the people inside are on the upper deck while three are below decks. One of the people above deck is awake while the other appears to be sleeping.

He sneaks into the upper cabin and knocks out the patrolling guard which turns out to be Lorenzo. He then drugs the sleeping guard to make sure he stays asleep. He then secures the two doors to the lower decks to make sure the three down there stay down there.

He then emerges on to the deck and tries to sneak behind the guard on deck. Unfortunately, the guard hears him and turns to attack. Before the guard can get off a shot however, his head explodes as he is hit by an electro-thermo round from Saito’s rifle. A few seconds later, the guard on the gang plank suffers the same fate.

Riptide and Zen get out and board the ship. The three make sure that the three guards below decks are secured. They then go find the horse. The horse is an Arabian Stallion. If it is indeed a clone, that would explain the high selling price. It’s also very stubborn and they are unable to get it to budge. Luckily their employer seems to have anticipated this and the driver they sent is able to coax the horse off the ship and into the truck. With the horse secured, they make their exit.

They take the truck back to warehouse 023. There they are congratulated on their success and are paid the remainder of their fee. Overall, the job is a success. However, considering that Lorenzo’s cut alone for this sale was $10 Million, they can’t help but feel this job should have been a lot more lucrative.