Tex's Warstory

Personal After-Action Report:

So, as with all missions, we live (hopefully) and learn. This time, unfortunately, death was right around the corner, due to some mistakes. Sure, we got paid, but I consider any run that ends with me in the hospital to be a failure.

So I get a number on my phone. I know the drill, call the number, meet with some strange guy, do a run, and get paid in certified cred. Easy enough, right? Well, this time, I called up Tagger, who has to be the dumbest fragging Troll this side of Pullayup. The run was to take out a full sized gang in Auburn. Tagger, in usual brilliance, dreams up blowing their hideout (of course, he didn’t know where it was) sky high. Of course, he also yells this to all of Moon’s Shine as well.

Of course, he wasn’t so much of an idiot that he realized we would need to scout the area. I fit in in Auburn about as well as Tagger would fit in at a Saeder-Krupp society function. Cutter, a seemingly dependable shaman, did fit in, along with Tagger, so they checked out a bar the gang hung out in. Inadu, an assassin (who would hire two for a gang takedown, anyway?), did a good job sneaking around and getting info as well.

Finally, we decided to just hit the bar the gang hung out in. We tried to take out their truck first, so they couldn’t get reinforcements. I was driving Inadu and a bomb around to wait until it stopped. Well, it stopped, and opened up on us. That was one rental car that we never returned, although both of us got away safe. I should have known things weren’t going our way then, but I went along with them anyway.

So we went in the back way, at least. Surprise was important, you know. Well, after taking down the door, Tagger ruined any sense of surprise by blowing the door in with C4. Hiromi, our street Sammy, and only real tough guy, took a full burst right to the chest just walking into the room. It took about 10 seconds and several injuries before we took down the one goon behind a desk with a gun. Then, things went downhill fast. A guy with a light machine gun walked into the room and dropped Tagger like a load of bricks. We dropped him with a couple of well placed pistol shots. Then came grenades. I fled into the hallway to avoid them. Then came elementals. Cutter sent them to kingdom come with one hell of an awesome spell that just exploded on them. Then, I got shot in the back. Damn thing. There I was standing in the hallway, and the door opens behind me and a goon opens up on me with an assault rifle. I dropped hard.

Next thing I know, some Bear Shaman is standing over me and I feel a lot better. But we find out that while we whacked a bunch of their goons, the leadership was elsewhere. We don’t get our pay unless we whack them too. Great, so I’ve already been hit hard once and healed. Now we go back in, this time to their personal hideout (why we didn’t go here in the first place, I have no idea). I help Inadu to whack the guards easily. Then Hiromi and Inadu rush into the room. I figure they’ll have the situation under control, so I rush in after them. Bad idea. I get one shot off, our street sammy goes down, and I get a full SMG blast to the face. The next thing I know, I wake up in a hospital with a 5.5k credstick in my possession, and a note saying they finished the job.

Mistakes:

1. Signing up with some dumb troll ganger. Sure, the 8k sounded good, but after I pay off my medical bills from being shot up, and factor in the losses from jobs not taken, I probably lost money. In future, remember that you are a hitman, and good at that, not a good member of some assassin heavy strike team meant to take out a full gang in the ghetto.
2. Allowing yourself to be surrounded. Why the heck didn’t we lock the doors at least to cover our backside. Heck, we got in a Mexican standoff with the gangers, and they had more help, so of course they sent someone around back.
3. Rushing into a room full of bad guys with guns. I may be tough, but running into hell is not a good idea if I want to live long in this line of work. Let the big dumb troll, if he wants to blow in the door, be the first one to go in too.
4. This goes along with the earlier one, but no effective leadership. Hell, this is why I used to do all my jobs alone. Tagger can be forgiven for being a dumb SOB, he is a troll after all, and the others weren’t bad, but nobody took the lead, and we all almost got tagged because of it.

Conclusion: Failure, but one you survived, even if only barely.