Dangerous Acquaintances

So while we're here, let's talk about the team I usually run with. I'll say now that they're kinda hard to define as a team; they come and go, and its rare that we'll do a run with everyone. More often than not, it's kinda situational and based on who's available at the time. Hell, I think I'm the only person who's actually been there for every job we've done so far (And that is because I'm awesome, of course) unless the others have done jobs together that they didn't tell me about.

Anyway, in no real order, here they are

Check out the 'stache

Freddie was the first of them that I worked with. He's an Ork, but apparently one of the rare "goblinized" variety that were born human and changed at puberty. That doesn't happen much anymore from all I've heard, so that makes him kinda cool in a way. He's ex-army, and picked up a lot of his skills from there, which is also what got him his start in what he does. The way I hard it, he’s originally from Tir Tangiere. That’s kinda crazy, huh? Only Ork on the team's from the Tir, but neither of the Elves are. Added to that, he speaks Sperenthiel, and I don't. Freddie's apparently his real name, but all efforts to get a street name have failed to stick. He just looks like a Freddie

Om the runner side of it, Freddie's a Rigger to use the conventions of the Runner world. He's got a control rig that he uses to run Drones and his Van (more on that to come!) remotely which makes him super-useful. He's great at recon (fly-spy drones which can get anywhere and are easy to hide because they look like normal bugs) and fire-support with his two Rotordrones, both of which pack assault rifles and grenade launchers (Boom!). He also recently came into a Steel Lynx drone with a MMG, but hasn't had a chance to use it as yet.

This was the first picture of a Bulldog I could find. Freddies' is
less shabby by a long way.

His main ride is a GMC Bulldog van. Now outwardly it doesn't look like much (really, it looks like a van. What do you want?) but Freddie's awesome behind the metaphorical wheel with it. (Metaphorical because he doesn't really need to hold the wheel and drives it with his Control rig, but hey. You get the picture). It’s how he carries his drones to and from the job, because a normal delivery van is a lot less conspicuous then a swarm of armed drones. Oh yeah; he’s also so good behind the wheel that he can keep pace with sports cars, even though it’s just a van.

Freddie has an old army buddy called Benny, who spends most of his time on Freddy's couch eating his snacks. Benny also knows a hell of a lot of useful skills including first aid and demolitions, which has saved our arses a couple of times. So Benny' pretty cool.

Wraith is camera-shy

Next up is Wraith, who's our sometimes leader. Wraith's apparently ex-Salish special forces or something, and definitely has the skills and know-how to prove it. He doesn't talk that much about his past, but there's been hits here and there and even if half of it is true, then he's actually pretty badarse for a human who doesn't have much in the way of 'ware or anything else in him. I definitely got the impression that he's been in a lot of crazy drek before he started running in the shadows, and it shows. Also, it seems that there might be somebody trying to kill him who has enough resources to send heavily customized cybered-up monsters after him. Whoops.

He has weird hair that’s kind of half silver and half copper but he assures us is natural. Also he has totally sweet tats. He definitely likes working on a team with two Elf chicks, but given that one of us is totally hot, who can blame him?

Anyways, Wraith's all about two things. The first is the tactics, planning and all that sorta stuff. He's big on thinking ahead and figuring out what we need to do to get the job done, and usually aims to be low-visibility and quiet. I suppose it works, even if I do like to rock out myself; time and a place for everything and junk. His knowledge works well here as well, meaning that he often has a good idea of the sorta situation that we’re going into and can plan for what to do when we get there and what sort of response we can expect. It also means we can better tailor our loadout and the like, which has lead to some odd choices.

The other thing he's good at is guns, guns and more guns. He seems to have a gun for every occasion and will often pick up a new piece for a specific purpose. Many times it's something weird, like a dart gun or a bow with specialised arrows or other such junk, but if it works, I'm not gonna argue. Often he acts as a sort of sniper for us, picking off opponents with his Crockett EBR, but he's got other surprises for when he needs them. I’ve seen entire gangs that pack less heat then he does.

Abby is also camera-shy, but a bit less so

Number three is Abby, who really I’ve only worked with a couple of times. She's pretty quiet and keeps to herself, and hasn't really given us much of an idea of who hse is as a person beyond "human". I get the impression she's a Seattle Barrens native, but she's so low-profile that she could be from the moon for all I really know. Apparently she used to work with another Runner team, but that ended badly and, what do you know, she's not talking. Like Freddie, apparently Abby's not her preferred Street name, but it's stuck.

Abby's an Awakened Adept who specialises in being sneaky and quiet. She can run up (and down) walls, run hella fast, leap long distances, move so silently you’d think she wasn't touching the ground, cling to ceilings and other such stuff. She's not that good at, you know, punching stuff like other adepts are, but apparently that's not her 'thing'. Rather, she avoids fights wherever possible and prefers to not let her presence be known. Each to their own, I suppose. The few times she's worked with Wraith, he got some really good results out of her being super sneaky, so that works. Hell, there’s a couple of times where I'd have loved to have her along because she would have made things a lot easier.

Seriously, she looks like a kid

Finally we have Neon, although everyone calls her the Brat, even her own mom. It's kinda deserved too as she does act like a bratty kid a lot of the time; sorta like the obnoxious kid sister that I never had. It doesn’t help that's she’s prone to sulking and pouting and loudly declaring "I'm not a kid" in a petulant way. Besides, its kinda funny and she does look adorable when she sooks. Though I think she's actually younger then she claims (Elf, I know, but...) which doesn’t help her any.

Neon's our decker, and for all I rib her she's actually really good at it. She can get in and out of an enemy system with ease, and has helped us immensely by stealing data, messing with enemy comms or security, disabling alarms, redirecting cameras and all sorts of other things. One of the best stunts she ever pulled was when she and Freddie worked together to Jack a target's car, letting him take control of it by remote. What made this even cooler was that the pair of them were following him in Freddie's van at the time.

She's got an interesting set-up too; her deck is built into a complex cyberarm, along with her commlink, a gun, a shock hand and who the fragging hell knows what else. Plus, to boot, she can swap the entire arm for a custom realistic looking one.

Unfortunately, her tactical sense isn't the best. I need to keep pulling her ass out of the line of fire. I swear she'd be dead several times over otherwise. But she's learning. A bit.