Dangerous Aquaintences

So beyond the team, there's a bunch of people we know one way or another. These guys are more or less allies, although this being what it is and our doing what we do, there's plenty of ways that any given ally could be tomorrow's deadly enemy. It's the way things go.

Lightspeed. Yes, she always looks this grumpy

Lightspeed was a runner in the 2050s, but since she's an Elf, it doesn't really show. She used to be a decker back in the Old Matrix and had the good luck to survive crash 2.0 which drove her into retirement. Nowadays she's more of a consultant and info broker and is rather well connected, even if many of her contacts are other old fart ex-runners. She definitely knows her stuff, and I suppose the fact that she lived so long as a runner means that she knows what she's doing. Her network has been very helpful to us in a number of ways, not the least of which is getting us some more recognition. She also apparently runs her own Data Store which serves Seattle area runners.

While she hasn't said much, I got the impression that most of her old team were dead or retired now. The few times she's mentioned them, she didn't seem to have many nice things to day about them.  Lightspeed apparently has a lot of her old pre-Crash cyberdecks, although they're utterly useless now. She turned one of them into an Ant Farm.

We jokingly call her "decker mom", although it turns out that she actually is Neon's mom (and, incidentally, refers to Neon as "the brat" a lot). Apparently, she didn’t know that Neon was an active Runner for some time, until someone 'outed' Neon in front of her. On the other hand, it explains a lot about where Neon got a lot of her skills and knowledge from.

Cinders; punk mage

Cinders is a mage who runs her own runner crew out of an abandoned school in the Barrens. We've crossed paths with them a couple of times and so far are on reasonably good terms; we look out for each other, keep in contact, let the other know when something's going on and so forth. Wraith is interested in doing a lot of community building with her and her crew, but I think that's just because she provides him with another hot chick to hit on (well not entirely, but maybe more then just a little bit). Her team also look out for one another and their own little chunk of territory, making it a bit less of an urban hellhole.

She's a got a love of fire spells (like the name didn't make it obvious). The other members of her team include Pandora (Elven Decker), Malthus (Surprisingly articulate Ork Mercenary) and Pinpoint (Not terribly talkative Dwarven Sniper)

Pandora, Malthus and Pinpoint. I'll let you
guess which is which

(EDIT: I have been told that my description of Malthus is Earth-shatteringly racist and playing to negative stereotypes.)

I mentioned our now deceased Ares Johnson last post. I also mentioned that he had a team that has kind of fallen apart after his death, so I might as well throw in some details here.

Theresa in her KE-issue
pink shirt

Theresa is an Elf whom I've gathered was a runner herself before deciding to change teams and join Knight Errant for whatever reason. Me, I couldn't imagine anything that would make me do that, but I'm sure she had her reasons, whatever they may be. With that being said, she apparently was Johnson's second and was a pretty good investigator and no slouch in a fight. She prefers automatic Shotguns and has at least a little bit of 'ware herself. With him dead, I'm not sure what she'll be doing; presumably reassigned to more conventional duties. Yet another reason why I don't want to work for a corp.

TopKek. What does that
even mean anyway?

Her partner of sorts was TopKek,  an Ork decker who was apparently 'convinced' to sign up after a run went bad and he was caught by a KE HTR. Top's not exactly subtle; he's very loud and flashy in everything he does, including his hacking. Apparently one of his favorite techniques is to spam Ork smiley face icons to overwhelm and confuse his targets. I have no idea how this actually works (not being a Decker and all) but it seems to be effective enough for him both to have worked as a Runner  (his getting caught had nothing to do with his technique and a lot to do with bad timing) and for Ares. Although apparently Neon got into some massive nerd-fight with him. What a surprise.

He used the confusion of the break in at the Ares detention facility and the death of the Johnson to slip away. No idea where he is now.

Dr Kendall is a Cybersurgeon who runs one of the best clinics in the Barrens, loaded statements aside. He really knows his stuff; after all, he was the one who installed all my 'ware, and that's worked out awesomely for me. He also has access to a lot of good quality stuff (like my recent Betaware upgrades) and is my go-to guy for whenever I need to get myself fixed up or want some new 'ware. Wraith's also been looking into getting some stuff from him, but needs more money first. Guy's got to have a goal.

Besides all that, he's also very knowledgeable about medicine, cybernetics and other augmentations. This extends to not just their use and implementation, but also their manufacture and proliferation. This has helped us a couple of times when we've been tracking down odd uses of Cyberware or rather strange or unique modifications. He’s not going to betray a patient, but he will at the same time let us know when there's something going on that could impact us.

In short: best Cyberdoc ever. Five star rating.

I admit I may be a bit biased in anything I say here

And finally we have Alphonso, whom I admit I am a bit biased in anything that I say about him. He's an Elven street racer whom we first met when he and Freddie were entered into the same race. Don't get me wrong; he is good and definitely knows what he's doing. The only reason he was able to beat Freddie is because, well, as good as you are in a GMC Bulldog, you're not going to beat a Eurocar Westwind on a paved straightaway.

However, in addition to his Street Racing career, Alphonso also makes a lot of money on the side as a smuggler. This proved invaluable to us because of the contacts and knowledge that he has, allowing us to get across the Salish and Tir borders with no questions asked, while also putting us on the best routes to get to the target. He also set Freddie up with some smuggling compartments in his Van so that he can hide some stuff that he doesn't want to get caught with.

In addition to all that, Alphonso's my current boyfriend. I mean, who could say no to a devastatingly handsome Elven street racer who owns a top of the line Euro sports car and enjoys the same sorts of things you do? Plus he loves it when I talk dirty to him in German, even if he doesn't understand a word I'm saying when I do.