Sixth World theme parties

There is nothing more dangerous then a wounded Megacorp. If one is in trouble, then the others will step up their actions against it, eager to exploit the weaknesses. Aty the same time, that corp will also lash out on its own, trying to buy time and cover their own problems by making things worse for the others. This means a lot of work for people like me, mind you, though it tends to be in the 'high risk' category. That'll happen when you're dealing with people who have nothing to lose.

NeoNET is very much in a bad place right now. While they've done their best to keep their lid on what's happening in Boston, the loss of their headquarters and a huge chunk of their resources contained within is hurting them bad. Renraku has been getting particularly vicious, given that the two companies have a rivalry going back to the old days of Fuchi (Cue Lightspeed being old and Cranky). And we've been getting involved in it.

After that last run where our attempts to protect a NeoNET suit turned into trying to stop him from jumping ship, our friend Willard Johnson was looking to even the score and bloody Reraku's nose. (And I'm all for that. I hate those guys, really). So he was looking to get a little back of his own, and hired us to basically do unto others as they had done unto him.

In order to aid their bid for the Corporate Court's data security, Renraku had flown in a security specialist form HQ in Japan to do his own assessment of their systems. The idea was that this guy, Jon Kyo, would make Renraku look good while further adding to NeoNET's woes. Willard Johnson wanted us to put the brakes on that by extracting him. More to the point, we needed to do it in a way that made Renraku and their security look bad, and send a message to the corporate court that they should stick with NeoNET instead. Corp politics.

Willard J. gave us enough to know when he was flying into NY and when he'd be leaving, but didn't have access to his schedule otherwise. This was going to have to be step one of our operation, which would in turn let us plan for the actual extraction. Obviously this meant getting Neon in to have a look at their computer systems, which was problematic in and of itself. However, circumstance smiled on us and presented us with a nice little opportunity.

Even allowing for pro-corp propaganda everywhere, this
is a pretty cool spot

There was going to be a pro-MDC rally at Rockefeller Plaza, where corp bigwigs would get together and basically congratulate themselves on how fantastic it was that they were rich and ran the city. While the idea was as banal as all hell, it was also a great opportunity. The plan was simple enough; I'd go in using my good quality fake SIN and swipe a commlink from a Renraku suit to let Neon backdoor her way into their system through it. Minster would also be in the crowd in case things went south, while Freddie would be lurking nearby watching over the place with his drones. Simple.

Naturally, it all went bad, but i'm getting ahead of myself. True to form I was able to play the crowd fantastically, walking my way through with random BS about crop affairs and the like with ease. I found one of the Renraku contingent (It's not hard. Look for the block of Middle aged Japanese men with very obvious watchers) and palmed his commlink without a problem. I passed it off to Neon (Who does an amazing impersonation of a corp brat, by the way. True, the Brat part is natural to her...) so she could get to work. Much to our surprise, she found that Kyo was actually due at this rally in a few minutes.

While that was a potential window of opportunity for us, Freddie pointed out something that did skew the situation somewhat. There was somebody lurking in a nearby office building, dressed as a janitor buy armed with a decidedly non-janitorial sniper rifle. He had it trained on the northern entrance to the rally, which was where Kyo was expected to arrive. Added to this, Minster made somebody in the crowd, another Runner he recognised by the unlikely name of Xenon Megablast. Furthermore, he also spotted a MDC utility truck parked nearby that had some obviously aftermarket drone racks concealed underneath it.

In other words, there was a hit about to go down. And while we didn’t know for sure that Kyo was the target, it also was a risk that we couldn't afford to take. After all, we don't get paid if somebody else geeks our target,

We quickly improvised a plan to throw the other team off and stop Kyo from getting his brains smeared all over the pavement before we could deliver them to NeoNET. First part was Minster actually breaking character and approaching Xenon (Seriously, what the hell is with the names of New York runners?) to strike up a conversation, thus distracting him from what he was doing., The second was for Freddie to park in the fake utility truck with his Van and start a shouting match with the driver. And the third was for one of his Fly Spies to ruin the sniper's shot. This it did by perching on the rifle and leering down the scope.

Sure enough, one missed shot was enough to throw the whole event into security lockdown panic and get security teams ushering VIPs off for protection, Kyo included. So while we couldn't convert this initial intel gathering phase into an extraction attempt, at least Kyo was alive ofr us to try and extract him again later. Call that a win.

F-B Commuter. A true classic

The good news was that we still had the data from Renraku on his schedule, which included one very good opportunity for an extraction. Kyo was going to be attending a swanky corp party in a Penthouse apartment on fifth avenue After the little incident at the rally, he would be travelling there by tiltrotor rather than driving on the grounds that it would make any would-be hits a lot harder. What he didn't know was that he was playing right into our hands.

Our plan was to lurk in ambush along Fifth Avenue, waiting until his flight passed overhead. Then once it was in range, Neon would hack its controls and hand it over to Freddie, much like we'd done with that Bentley ages ago. We'd bring it down into Madison Square Park whereupon me and Minster would be waiting to deal with the guards and extract Kyo. So your basic ultra-tech hijacking.

Naturally, it all went horribly wrong. The hack worked fine with Freddie taking over the Tiltrotor with ease. However, just as he was about to land it, some drekhead at the apartment it was heading for fired a man-portable SAM at it. Yes, really. What the hell, party? Some fast flying by Freddie managed to evade the missile, resulting in a rougher than expected landing in the park. None the less, it was still in pace for phase two,

A pleasant place to relax, assuming nobody lands a tiltrotor
on it

So while me and Minster sprang into action, Freddie was popping out Rotordrones to try and find the source of the attack and, more importantly, stop them from doing it again. (After all, a landed tiltrotor is a much easier target then a mobile one...). As expected, a trio of security goons piled out of the craft, only to get hit in the face by a Neurostun grenade form my Alpha. That floored one of them, but the other two were still in the fight, opening up with their SMGs.

I ducked behind some cover to avoid the worst of it, while Minster took matters into his own hands. He waded in (Respirator on, of course, so that he wouldn't be floored by our own gas) and neatly carved one of them in half with that fracking axe of his. Another burst of fire from me put down the third, and we were in the clear. The pair of us grabbed Kyo and hauled him off.

Meanwhile, the would-be assassin had been getting ready for another attack, only to find himself drawing some unwanted company. All four of Freddie's rotordones decided to say 'hi' to him, spraying him with a hail of automatic fire. The gun-cams IDed him as the same guy who'd tried to snipe Kyo the previous day and, well, suffice to say that he'll never try that again. Or most anything.

Stashing Kyo in Freddie's van, we made our getaway by splitting off into three teams, leaving the inevitable HTRs to split their forces in order to track us all down. That was enough to allow all three of us to slip through the net and escape across jurisdictional boundaries. Eat it, rent-a-cops. Once we were home free we signaled Willard Johnson that we had the target, arranging a dropoff and a quick transfer of funds. Easy.

Of course, that did in theory leave the lingering question of who it was who had hired those other runners to off Kyo and why. Or at least it would, if I cared. Which I don't.