Home is where the weapons locker is

I've mentioned the Firehouse enough times; I think it's time I actually wrote a bit about it.

Before I met the team, I lived in my own little apartment in Seattle. It wasn't the best place, yeah, but it was good enough and had reliable services and was comfortable, and that was enough to work. My main concern was slipping in and out while carrying my weapons and other runner gear, something that residents of nice, middle-class neighborhoods aren't supposed to do. After all, you can only do so much to conceal an Ares Alpha or a Katana.

Wraith had floated the idea of getting together and setting up a team base. It had a few immediately obvious advantages; we would all know where we were and be able to grab each other for a run or in emergencies; we would have a central storage of weapons and gear that we could all access; we could equip it with whatever amenities and facilities we needed and, if the worst came to the worst, if somebody was after one of us, then they’d need to take on the rest of us as well.

The problem was finding a location. As said, I had my own apartment. Freddie had a decent enough place that had a garage for his vans and drones, as well as a couch that Benny slept on. Neon had her own small Barrens apartment. Nobody knew where Wraith hung out, and he probably preferred it that way. And as you can imagine, the market for hideouts for armed criminals didn’t that great; there's no public listings or real estate guides.

Instead, as so often happens, opportunity presented itself. As a part of a run, we had to clean out a hideout used by a group of Rusted Stilettos (You'll notice that these guys feature a lot in our lives). These guys had a nice setup; their squat was an old Firehouse in the Redmond Barrens which was still structurally sound even if it was a mess. And after e turfed out the Stilettos inside it, we figured that this would be the perfect place for our collective bolt hole.

It had as lot of advantages. Not just was it structurally sound, but all the metal in the frame and the thick walls meant that it actually was a great Wireless blocker, which would make it hard for anyone outside to hack in or get drones inside. The former engine bays made for a great garage for Freddie, able to not only handle his Van and drones but also providing him with lots of workspace. The equipment lockers had been used by the Stilettos for their weapons, so it was easy enough to repurpose them once again for our own weapons. And finally, it had a firepole. That alone is so much fun.

Though the place was still a mess. Years of neglect plus use as a gang squat meant that it was covered in graffiti, full of garbage, had broken windows and a list of other problems as long as your arm. So that's where Wraith did something very unusual (and shockingly altruistic for a Runner); he turned to the community. We'd already made some inroads with both the Brain Eaters and Cinder's crew, so he built on that to bring more people in. He used locals to help patch the place up, clean it up, repair the damage and make it livable. At the same time, he was also helping them, providing food and opportunities and shelter.

We also made a few small changes to the interior. We divided up the living space to give everyone separate rooms, while adding in a few other amenities as well. A generator, for one, so we would be able to operate independently of any outside supply. Likewise, Freddie set up a proper workshop, while Neon added in a whole bunch of equipment to allow her to Hack away to her heart's content. Throw in working kitchens and bathrooms, and we were done. Hell, we even had a couch for Benny to sleep on when he chose to come round (which is to say, all the time).

The whole thing has worked. We have four of the team immediately available (Abbey chose to stay in her own hole in the ground wherever it is, similarly when he joined us Captain Cancer elected to stay at his place, though I’m not exactly upset over that) and all the resources we need for doing our jobs. And we’ve got a solid community that we can rely on, which gives us an added level of safety and security. Given how many enemies we’ve made, that's a very important thing to have.

And it still has the firepole. That's what matters.

EDIT: I've been told that Abbey actually lives here and has done so for the better part of a year. Clearly she's that sneaky