The Hiring (30JUN2063)

A Dwarf sits atop a stool on the stage crooning out a raspy quiet tune of angst, backed by muted electric guitar and soft percussion. It's Saturday at Moon's Shine, and that means live music. The bar is mostly full. A pair of Orks are standing by the Wall of Shadows, looking over a handful of new entries that were added in a wake, of sorts, the night before.

A muscular Ork woman walks into the bar. She is wearing a longcoat and makes little effort to conceal a katana beneath her coat. Her expression is stern and focused. People that spot her get out of the way and she gently shoulders the rest out of her path. She scans about, gliding through the bar. She stops when she sees Jared talking with a human at a table. After buying a beer from Moon, she moves over to the wall to read the plates. The new ones still have an odd brilliance and cleanliness to them that stands out.

Hammer (JUN2063) Four cyberlimbs and he still got nailed
Doc (JUN2063) A shotgun slug to the ear, now he walks with Bear
Colt (JUN2063) He died with his boots on and his pistol smokin'
Slick (JUN2063) You can never have too many guns
Zoom (JUN2063) Grenade tossing is not for amateurs

She nods to no one in particular as she finishes, and turns to Jared. Seeing the other person gone, she moves smoothly up and takes a seat.

"Guten Abend, Yared."

"Ah, Cutter. I heard you are trying to break into the biz. Good news for me. There are few Awakened folks as it is, and even fewer are willing to risk their hoops in the shadows instead of taking easier and higher paying jobs."

"I love to hunt." The crispness of her English is a surprising shift from her German greeting.

"Yeah, I hear that. Well here's the job. Someone needs to be...umm...rescued from their own ambitions, as it were. One of Corporation A's people has gotten himself intentionally lost and he needs to be recovered. And now for the hard part - he has crossed the border as of a few hours ago, probably with the help of Cascade Orks. Corporation A believes he is trying to rendezvous with an extraction team that will take him across another border and out of their reach. You will need a team of six, including yourself. I know you probably prefer to work alone, but when it comes to the big runs, that just isn't practical. I have a few recommendations, if you want them."

"Ya, continue."

"All right, first things first, you need to be able to get across the border. In spite of what the trideo action movies show us, stealth gunships are neither roomy, disposable, nor readily available."

"Ya, we do not want the target getting spooked. Who do you recommend?"

"I know this smuggler fellow, an Ork like yourself. His name's bootleg and he's looking for some work. He's cybered, but he can walk through most scanners without raising a peep. He also knows how to get goods, that includes people, across borders with a minimum of fuss."

"Sehr gut. Next?"

"You are going to need a couple of guys that can get in close without getting geeked and take someone down without damaging them too much. I know a couple of guys that fit the bill nicely. One is Black Jack, he is your classic martial artist Adept, a surprisingly rare breed as of late; everyone wants a gun it seems."

"Guns are a tool of the weak willed."

"Maybe, but they sure are handy sometimes. Anyway, there is another guy, Willis. He's a Dwarf boxer that make the rounds in the "informal" rings. He's a little too cybered for the pro circuit. Speaking of which, don't try to sneak him through a metal detector, his bones might light up."

Cutter shakes her head, smirking disapprovingly. "Metal bones, the things people do to their bodies."

"All right, so then we need to figure out what other gaps you need filled."

"Do you know any Tribals that are available?"

"Not offhand, but Bootleg might be able to get what you need done. You should not have to interact with Tribals that much. He's hiding, not seeing the sights. Smuggler know-how is what you need."

"I need a heavy weapons man."

"OK, missiles, machine-guns, or both?"

"Ya."

"Well, I got two, there's Jax, he's good with both, but a shy better with his LMG. He's a Dwarf merc. Then there's Lightning, he a human, formerly with the Russian military. He's good with both, but a shy better with missiles. Do you want both?"

"Ya, both. I want two people covering us when the schiesse hits the fan."

"Good enough. I'll start making the calls."

"How much are we getting paid and how much time do we have?"

"You need to move right away. We have no intelligence on the other team's schedule. Let me do the math here...OK. 50k for the whole lot of you; that's a little over 8k apiece minus expenses. Tidy little sum, that'll pay the bills and then some, neh?"

Cutter does not looked pleased, but it's possible that she never does. "It will do."

Jared slides a folder towards her.

"OK, here's your target. Good luck."

Jax's Warstory

My vibrating cell phone rumbles on the table, I take one last look at the pieces of my Ares Predator II on the table, close my eyes and begin to pick up pieces and quickly assemble the pistol. With the pistol entirely assembled I lay it back down on the soft cloth and look at the clock on the wall. 15 seconds, I grimace, "Gettin' slow." I mumble. I reach for the still ringing phone and answer, "What?"

"OK, what kind of job is it?" I pause waiting for the answer, "You need the big boy then?" a slight pause, "All right, see you there."

Work's been scarce lately. It's hard to bust into this Shadowrunning biz, but it looks like Jared finally sent something my way. Some fragger named Cutter needs some firepower, and Jared gave her my name. She's got some nerve calling me directly, guess she's new too. Anyway, a job's a job, so I better check it out. Moon's is a cool bar anyway.

I walk into Moon's Shine, and look to the Wall of Shadows and briefly stop...maybe there is honor among thieves. This biz might not be that bad. I see a grim-looking ork wave me over to a table with a small group sitting around it. This must be Cutter she seems to be organizing the team. There's another ork who looks real slick named Bootleg hope he can handle his drek when it counts. There's a human named Blackjack, a fraggin' big dwarf called Willis, and another human who looks ex-military, he goes by Lightning.

"Hey, I'm Jax." I say sitting down as Cutter passes a soy beer over. "What's the deal?"

Cutter does some perfunctory introductions and immediately gets into the scenario. Seems some corp croney got his allegiances confused and went AWOL. The corp wants him back and they want us to get him. That is, before another team escorts him to a new corp wanting to hire him. We all seem cool with the situation the cred seems good. We're all in. Luckily Willis and Bootleg got vehicles. I pack in Willis' van with Lightning. We're both packin' LMG's, definitely my kind of mission, I bring my AR just in case. We'll be in the woods on this mission and I might need to be mobile.

"Does anyone need equipment, I would suggest transceivers for those who don't have one?" I say. They're too expensive to get on the fly and everybody seems ready to go. Only Bootleg and I have radios, hopefully this won't be a problem.

The mark crossed from Seattle into tribal land with help from the Cascade Orks, turns out Bootleg is some sort of smuggler and knows these parts. We use the back roads to find a way over the border. Bootleg and I scout the fenceline looking for a way across. We get up to the fence and find a crossing point. There's a section of the fence that opens up for the road and we're able to find a time when the cameras aren't in sync. It almost gets a little dicey, but we make it across null sheen.

Once we're over, Bootleg knows of a guy who may have info on the mark's location. After impressing me with the border crossing he losses a few points by driving us all over the countryside. We find this place and he claims there's a contact who can tell us where the mark is stashed. It costs us 2k, seems cheap to me otherwise we're dead in the water I hope all the 2k went to the contact.

We get the location of a hunting lodge where the mark is supposed to be stashed. We head there ASAP, the team seems like they got their heads on straight 'cause we drive about a mile away from the location and stop to do recon, no arguments.

"Whose pretty good at sneakin' around?" I ask. Willis says he'll go out with me. Cutter volunteers with Blackjack. Bootleg wants to go, but he's our best driver, we may need him here with the vehicles. Bootleg had a good idea and set the vehicles on the road as if we had car trouble. Willis and I go west while Cutter and Blackjack go east we plan to meet at the lodge. Some crazy drek goes down before that happens though. I get some chatter on the radio that Blackjack and Cutter get jumped by a big-foot monster.

"Hey Jax, its Bootleg." I hear over the radio.

"Yeah, what's the situation." I respond.

"Cutter and Blackjack got jumped by a big-foot. You better come back and watch your back." says Bootleg over the radio.

"What? No, we'll be ok, we're pressing on. Out." I respond.

Big Foot? They're probably just scared of some wimpy bear I go hot with my AR and push on with Willis to the lodge. We start to reconnoiter the lodge and I find out that Willis is not sneaky...I leave him at the north end of the lodge and finish the recon on my own. That's when I found out that big-feet are real. I hear a commotion off in Willis's direction and start making a run for him. I see him running towards me in the trees just as a big, hairy thing crashes down on him with both fists in one pain-searing lullaby.

Hoping to salvage some semblance of stealth in the recon mission, I drop my rifle and pull out my knife. That thing packed one fraggin' big punch though and I just barely miss gettin taken out myself. I manage to stab at the beast with my knife and hit it hard enough to send it packing. Lucky for me. Mental note to self, write Cougar company a ringing endorsement for using their long blade on big-feet. I throw Willis over my shoulder and haul him back to the vehicles. Blackjack is out cold when I get back. Cutter thinks we need more recon so she goes back out with me to scout the place using her magic. We head down the road together and that's when the night got majorly fragged.

The team was going to stay with the vehicles while Cutter and I did one last reconnoiter of the lodge. We get a few hundred meters down the road and I get the chatter on the radio from Bootleg. Turns out the team coming to pick up the mark and escort him to his final destination just arrived. I figure the best scenario is for Cutter and I to double time it down the road and grab the mark. She's a fraggin' viscous looking bitch, and I ain't no slob. We should be able to grab some "regular Joe"-type guy.

"Hold them off!" I yell into the radio, "We'll grab the mark, and rendevous with you." I say. I point down the road toward the lodge. Cutter agrees and we start running. It's too late though.

"We need you back here, now!" Bootleg replies. Cutter and I stop in our tracks, not sure exactly what to do. Its pretty clear once I see the thermal signature of the vehicles exploding. The only choice we have is to fight for our lives. A minute later I hear from Bootleg.

"They're comin' down the road at you!" he yells.

I point to the woods, Cutter's no dummy, she knows the drek is going down. We run into the treeline and take cover. The vehicles pass, but we still need a plan. We get back out to the road.

"We need to set up an ambush, meet us at the fork in the road." I tell Bootleg over the radio. Cutter and I double-time it down the road again. Bootleg runs by us on the road, fast bugger! We set up at the fork in the road by the lodge. Bootleg and I position to hit the vehicles coming from the lodge. Cutter flanks the road to the east. We see the vehicles coming down the road. Where the frag is the rest of the team?! Next thing I hear the crack of Bootleg's pistol. I take aim with my grenade launcher and pop a round off. Hot damn! One wheel down, except now they know we're here. The LMG turret on the security van starts popping of rounds into the treeline. I launch another grenade. I think Cutter is workin' on the car with the mark. The drek really hits. My heart is racing, time to earn my share!

Bootleg and I take turns on the security van, between the two of us we manage to take out a couple wheels, and slow it down. Its rigged though cause the driver is doin' some serious maneuvers. I guess Cutter takes out the other car because it gets hung up on the treeline. I roll out to the road for a better shot, but the LMG is too dangerous. Need to stay in the trees to live. I run up through the trees to the van. I roll out of the trees and brace against the side of the van, the LMG can't get me here. The van door slides open and a street sammy jumps out, just my luck. Whoa! Those shiny spurs are goin' to feel nice. The spurs rip through my camo suit. Its cold out, but that warm feeling isn't so good down my side. Drawing my heavy pistol I get off a round into the guy. Frag, no effect! He's pissed now. I hear an AR burst behind me. Someone's coming up, hopefully to help me with the sammy before he turns me into shredded dwarf cheese.

Finally Bootleg gets up and jumps in it with me and the sammy. He's pretty wiz with a stun baton and manages to get a good shot in. Not until after the sammy reminds him what sort of drek we're in. Once Bootleg gets the baton on the sammy we're able to pound on him. The sammy goes down soon, but not soon enough, we're both hurting and there's another runner comin' at us from the truck. He's nothin' compared to the sammy though. I keep hearin' rounds going off, probably from over by the car. I hear LMG rounds from the van, but also from farther away. Not sure where the team is just yet, right now, its just Bootleg and me for our lives. The other guy from the van is easier to handle compared to the sammy, we take him down null sheen. The rigger knows we've turned the tide, they're in the drek now. As I reach for my AR the rigger calls out on a loudspeaker, "Stand down, let them take him." we all hear.

It's quiet for a moment, both Bootleg and I seem tentative, I'm ready to open a burst into the rigger, just to be safe. Suddenly the van door shuts, he's buttoned up in there now. Bootleg and I begin to slink off, weapons ready, we decide to slink off into the treeline. Bootleg notices that Willis is down behind the van, a casualty of the LMG turret oddly he's clutching a box of grenades.

Bootleg grabs up Willis and we rendevous with the team in the woods. Blackjack and Cutter look like they've seen better days. Turns out they geeked the car and the guys in it. Guess Cutter got a little zealous and almost took out the mark with her sword, but it looks like he'll be ok. The corp just wanted him back alive, hopefully we've sent him the message that going AWOL is painful.

Bootleg comes through for us and gets one of his smuggling buddies to snatch our hoop outta here. A pick-up location is arranged and he brings us back to Seattle. We hold up in a motel to lick our wounds and Cutter contacts Jared. We've got a while for the exchange, which Cutter uses to heal some of us up. The switch goes down null sheen. Jared's got the nuyen to make this all worthwhile. He comps the guys for their vehicles, so long as the team runs for him again...for free. Not too bad a deal, Jared's been a good fixer.

I get back to my place and kick back. First on the list is some R&R time so my wounds heal up, meanwhile I call my buddy about a new LMG.

Bootleg's Warstory

Seein' as how I'm laid up in the hospital for a couple of days, I thought I'd make a record of the events that led up to me ending up here, eatin' this nasty green soy-gelatin. I figure it'll be something good to have a few years from now, when I'm outta the biz and kickin' back.

It was a Saturday night when I got the call. Some woman calling herself Cutter had apparently gotten my name from Jared. She was asking if I wanted in on this retrieval job that he had tossed her way. I got the details from her and agreed to meet with the rest of the crew she was assembling. I wondered why my name had come up, but I figured I could bring some professionalism to the job. Smugglin' goods for the Yellow Lotus Triad has usually been good to me, but the lack of calls from them lately means that I could really stand to score some cred from one of these shadowrunnin' gigs.

So, I double-checked my gear before headin' out the door. Then, I drive my happy black ass on over to Moon's to get the details of the run and see who the rest of the crew is. Since Moon's isn't very far, I end up there before anyone except this one intense-lookin' Ork gal, decked out in shark's teeth and everything. She also ain't makin' no excuses for that sword she's sportin', but I get the impression it ain't just for show. She waves me over as I'm getting' my soybeer from Moon, who happens to be one big mother-fragger of a Troll. She introduces herself as Cutter and says the rest are on their way.

True to her word, an assortment of other wannabe 'runners comes trickling in. There's two humans: a real lean omae named Black Jack that don't have much to say and some cybered Russian going by Lightning. The other two members of our crew are a couple of cybered dwarves going by Willis and Jax. Jax comes off as another merc sort, since he's also suited up in camo. Willis is a little rough around the edges, but is probably stronger than even me, by the look of those pythons he's callin' arms.

Once everyone gets a beer and makes introductions, Cutter gives us the lowdown on this job. Apparently, we're supposed to bring somebody's little corp egghead home. Seems this Shane McCormick guy has flown the coop and big momma corp wants him back before he goes to work for the competition. Word is, he made his break with some Cascade Ork help, and I got called in for my smugglin' know-how. I can tell by the look of this crew that there's no way I'd be able to get us through any official checkpoint. Backroad border-jumpin' ain't my style, but I do know of a couple of places to go.

Time is of the essence, so we head out in the two vehicles available: my Americar and Willis's Bulldog van. I'm not keen on takin' my ride, but we've discovered that I'm probably the best driver and Willis's van is geared up for a dwarf, so I guess I'll have to. A quick stop to grab some last minute gear from Jax's nearby place and we're on our way to one of the "border crossings" accessible from Puyallup. The way I see it, those Cascade Ork boys probably took this joker across where he wouldn't be seen.

As we approach the border, the recon is left up to Jax and me. Despite some difficulties getting the vehicles through, we don't scare up any NAN border patrol attention. Since they firmly believe in "shoot first, ask questions later", I'm glad things are going so smoothly. I gotta admit, I was a little worried that the two LMG-totin' mercs would seriously throw off my groove, since heavy weapons and discrete don't usually go together, but things are okay for now

I led the crew all over the various encampments just across the border in the Cascade Ork lands before we found a guy I had dealt with before. He was willing to roll over on our target for an easy 2k¥, and we were able to convince Cutter that it was a fair price before she tried muscling more information out of him. He gave us GPS data on the cabin where the guy was holed up, waiting for some other group to retrieve him and deliver him to the loving arms of another corp.

Now that we knew where to find the guy, we drove out to the location and pulled up short so the mark wouldn't hear the vehicles. Lightning and I stayed with the rides while the rest of the crew went scouting. All was good until Cutter and Black Jack had an encounter with a certain big hairy critter. Cutter called me to say she had dropped the thing with her mojo, but that Black Jack had been knocked out cold, so she was hauling him back. I radioed Jax, the only other member of the crew savvy enough to have a transceiver, and filled him in. He seemed to dismiss the possibility of bigfoot attacks and he and Willis decided to press on.

About the time Cutter returns with Black Jack, Jax and Willis are finishing up their recon and taking positions near the cabin. Then, I hear over the radio that a bigfoot got the best of Willis, leaving Jax to haul him back so we can regroup. I gotta remember to keep my ass outta the woods, seein' as how I don't wanna end up as a well-dressed dinner for some hairy critter. Black Jack finally comes to and Jax makes it back with Willis, so I begin to think things will start running smoothly, now that we've run off the local wildlife. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Anyways, Cutter and Jax strike back out for the cabin. Apparently, the shark-woman wants to get a magical look at the place to see if anything strange is going on. We agree to follow behind in the vehicles, but that plan is soon abandoned, when we hear vehicles speeding up the road behind us. It's a darn good thing Willis has come to, since we decide to grab what we can and bail out of the cars into the cover of the woods. Just as we get clear, Willis's van blows up, followed shortly by my car. Damn, I hate to see a man lose his ride, but I really hate losin' mine. We guess that the punks who whiz past in a van sportin' an LMG and a passenger car are likely another team of 'runners, sent to retrieve our target. Seein' as how they wasn't too worried about shootin' up another man's car, I sure as hell ain't gonna be too worried about puttin' a few holes in them, once we catch up to 'em.

I radio Jax so that he and Cutter can clear out of the road, since I really don't feel like haulin' back any dead bodies and adding another name to Moon's Wall of Shadows. That trigger-happy merc Lightning decides to reveal our position by firing off a grenade round at the van in a desperate attempt to slow them down. He draws some heavy fire from that LMG as a result, and our asses are outta there. We realize that we have a chance to stop them after they've picked up our target, so we all take off for the fork in the road, where we think we can head them off.

By the looks of things, I didn't figure myself the best athlete amongst us, but I passed up Cutter and Jax on my way to the fork, even though they had a good head start. Fortunately for me, those two make it there just before the van and the car come back down from the cabin. Because of some lucky shots from my Savalette and Jax's skill with his grenade launcher, we take out a tire on the van. It's a good thing, too, since the smoke grenade I tossed went wide. It ain't enough, though, 'cause the van keeps going. By the way it's drivin' and shootin', I figure that van's rigged, which is bad news for us.

Lucky for us, Black Jack arrives on scene as the car rounds the corner, making our odds a little better. Jax and I abandon our cover in an attempt to shoot out its tires. We all seem to be thinkin' the same thing: the guy we want is gonna be in that car. Cutter is nowhere to be seen, but I figure she's aiming to get our mark when they bail out of the car. Thanks to some wild shots from Black Jack, the car loses 3 tires and spins to a stop alongside the van. I don't know what that LMG is shootin' at behind us, but it's not too interested in me right now, so I move on in to back up Jax, whose advancing on the van. At least they've stopped driving away.

As I'm coming around the edge of the trees, Jax comes over the radio hollerin' about some Sammy whose cuttin' him up bad. I start bookin' it towards him and get tagged by some fool with an assault rifle stickin' out the back of the van. I've been grazed by shots before, but they still sting like hell. By the time I get to Jax, the Sammy has laid him open with his 'spurs, but I got a stun baton with his name on it. I was always a heavy pipe-hittin' brother, but the extra kick in this little electric stick oughta do a number on Mr. Spur.

As I join in the brawl, I hear shots and shoutin' coming from the direction of the car. I'll just have to guess that the noise is from Cutter and Black Jack doing their thing. The Sammy lays me open pretty good, but me and Jax take him down as his buddy the merc jumps outta the van. I see that he's the punk with the assault rifle, so I give him a cold look as I drop his buddy and say "Bring it."

Jax and I go at him, only to be stopped when the rigger in the van comes over his loudspeaker and tells his team to stand down and let us take the target. I'm relieved, since me and Jax are tore up pretty bad, but I ain't about to trust these guys. We train our guns on the merc as we draw away, and I notice Willis bleedin' out on the ground near the woods, his crate of grenades emptied in front of him. Seems he took some serious heat tryin' to get to us. I can't let a guy who took shots for me just lay there bleedin', so I holster my Roomsweeper and carry Willis into the cover of the woods with me.

Our crew regroups and Black Jack uses my medkit to stabilize Willis. Cutter sets about to treatin' herself and the few of us she can with her mojo. The little corp pissant we came out here to retrieve has taken up whimpering over the wound Cutter gave him before she realized who he was. I put the pieces together and realize we need some wheels to get home. At 5 AM on a Sunday, the only dude I know who'd cross into the NAN for my ass is Trench, and he's gonna charge big time. We ain't got any other options, so I make the call and wake his big Troll ass up. Just my luck, he's hung-over and can't come. He says he'll call a friend for me, so I sit down to wait for it.

A few minutes of debatin' whether or not I'll need to buy a new suit passes before I call Trench back and wake him up again. He must still be drunk and went back to sleep, since he's dozin' off while I'm hollerin' at him. I guess the second time's a charm, since his buddy on this side of the border calls me back and will transport all of us back to Puyallup for 5 kY. We set up some coordinates for a pick-up, but Jax notices the transceiver the mark's wearin'. We trash the earpiece and I call our transport back to get a new location.

Fortunately for us, Trench's buddy is good at his job, and we make it back to a motel in Puyallup safely. I take Willis to the hospital while Cutter calls Jared. He wants to meet for the handoff tomorrow afternoon at Moon's.

I got my 7kY out of the job, as well as a new Americar, courtesy of Jared. He did the same favor for Willis, replacing the dwarf's van. Our whole crew now owes him a run for free, but I'm down with that. I've owed a few favors in my time. Sometimes, there's even a good windfall from ownin' up to them favors. I'll just have to see. For now, I'm gonna kick back and watch some more trid while I wait for the doc to give me the all clear. The longer I'm in this place, the less take-home pay from this run, and that means the sooner I have to run again. Maybe Johnny Wong will have another smuggling job for me soon.