2081

Sun Feb 28 13:12:33 2021 Denver, somewhere in CAS, February 11th 2081 Brazen and his small team have been hired to help a low level Wuxing Exec with a little problem. Some underworld guys seem to pressure him to make sure some goods are 'falling off a truck' on a regular base. Threats have been dealt that the mans daughter, at the tender age of 18 could fall victim to some very 'unfortunate' happenstances if no one took care of her. Instead of buckling the man has however took measures, namely, hiring the runners to do distant bodyguard duty. He had not told his family of the problem and thus has asked the runners to take care of the problem. Brazen, a Minotaur and thus not really that easily hidden, uses magic to fade more into the background on this task, a camouflage spell that does help him immensely. It is Lia, though who gets work first, as the Unicorn Shaman notes a spirit approaching the threatened girl on her way to school. But Lia is easily able to get rid of this unauthorized magical being by banishing it away. The day after Big Sue is required to work for her money, as a guy starts to mess with the girls ride. Repairing brakes however is a breeze for the rigger. The other usual attempts, like trying to kidnap the girl fail simply at the intervention from the massive troll variants body showing itself at … opportune moments. The only problem there being the occasional need to calm nervous cops, but Sue and Lia can manage to calm those easily. Sun Feb 28 11:53:59 2021 Denver, Asia Town, Silver Lotus Temple, February 10th 2081 As other things happen in town Lotus has retreated to Asia Town to enter the New Year in a more ceremonial way. Praying at the Silver Lotus Temple, she notices Darius and Walker among the crowd. None of them being Buddhist, she clearly realizes that those two are merely here to enjoy the cultural variety of Denver. Well, the freely available drinks and entertainment certainly also helps. A bath in a, for once, happy crowd being something positive for a mage after all. So, the three mages of various traditions are taking in the emanated positive emotions and enjoy the time. When Walker gets aware of some guy using a cyberdeck on a console placed in the Temple things get more serious, though. Listening with the others, who he made aware of the odd happenstance, the mages realize that these two guys, clearly members of a local Tong Clan, seem to be preparing some trap to attack a local Yakuza Oyabun who wants to serve up his own compliments to the ancestors sometime soon. The fact that these guys are seemingly in the process of installing a bomb of sorts, which would certainly kill more than just a few innocents, is what prompts the runners to interfere with this action. As Walker starts to distract the crowds and the assassins with an oratory about the virtues of the Buddhist faith, relying on Lotus's whispered input for that, after the Asian woman had sadly failed to get the crowds attention. It is Lotus who then sneaks out to remove the bomb and carry it away. When one of the would-be assassins draws a gun to silence Walker it is a shot from Darius, who used this way to get the attention of the crowd towards the true culprits, using Gel ammo. After that, the second Assassin turns to flee, but once again Darius is faster, catching the man in an impressive spurt for the afterwards totally pumped out mage. Proof delivered by Lotus finally gives the local law a well-received opportunity to shine. And aside from that gel round shot by Darius the crowd is not even aware of the danger they just escaped. All in all, it is a good day for Denver. Sun Feb 28 09:40:09 2021 Denver, Warrens, February 10th 2081 A small group of runners has met in some abandoned building out in the Warrens. The meet initiated by ThOR who has been researching the relationship between Wuxing and Ghostwalker for quite a while now. Since the building started in the Warrens, to be correct. For the first time he was simply shying away from the Dragons own network, but as Wuxing works on the new Archology to be built in what has been 'The Sticks' in the past. The young Matrix Wizard thinks he could find out more about the doings and the relationship of the dragon and the Megacorp, even more as he just recently has laid hands on a piece of code belonging to the Megacorps Security Systems. Together the team consists of ThOR, Aruka, as magic support and using her fledgling matrix abilities, Rooks, as idea giver and being one of the more experienced specialists in town, Shoeshine, as muscle and general support and Katral as the gray eminence of Matrix in their team. At first their most experienced programmers Gaul and Katral start to analyze the code they laid hands on. A flaw is found, and special software created to abuse said fault in the megacorps systems. As so often it is unlikely to be useable more than once, as the megacorp is almost guaranteed to eliminate this flaw in their system once they analyze the run. However, one flaw is soon found. This must be done on site to work. So, they all head out into the construction site, entering the temporary server room. Disguised as cleaning personnel they move into the facility. Unfortunately, guns must speak, before an overly attentive guard, recognizing their faked ID's, can give them away. Shoeshine is taking care of that with a silenced Pistol, while Aruka must deal with the security mage in astral combat. Luckily, no one else is noticing the break. Gaul and Rooks split the team up into two groups after that, the Deckers and the guard team to divert guard attention in the area the decker team works in. Shoeshine and Aruka again get challenged, this time by one of the corps guard spirits. With its mage taken out the thing is still operating independently but threatens to alarm more guards. Shoeshine attacks with the pure willpower only a dwarf can bring to bear as Aruka spells it down. After that, threatened by the most unusual coincidence Shoeshine has to talk them past all too attentive cleaning personnel, who had been wondering why another cleaning crew was working in the server premises. Analyzing the data, back in their Warrens Hideout, the team is getting quite a surprise. One thing gets confirmed, the Dragon and Wuxing are working together to reactivate an old Dragon Line, that will get active between the Arcology in build and the Dragons home. However somehow it seems an opponent of Ghostwalker has found a way to sour the Dragon Line for its intended master. And potentially all of Denver. Important settings have been changed by an, so far, unknown culprit. A fact that only comes out through the analysis of these criminals who are looking for dirt. Receiving the news from the runners Ghostwalker is taking notice personally, though the reply to their endeavors comes through his Voice Whitebird. "The dragon is pleased!" Sun Feb 14 13:58:39 2021 Denver, Warrens/The Sticks, Thursday February 11th 2081 Someone is using the distraction that literally millions of celebrating people cause to start up a more serious mission. Laz is called in by one of the powerful personalities of Denver, to do a mission. His contractor makes it clear that no one is to know that this was a task given from this source. The runner is to die first before he reveals his employer, and it is also made quite clear that this will be an almost impossible quest to achieve. With this in mind, the powerful magical adept moves out, his usual confidence on the forefront. The first parts of the mission already proves difficult, but with the assistance of Mr.T's Warrens contacts, some help of a greased Wuxing insider and some Matrix assistance by Vermillion, the two physically present mages make their way in. A rigger sneaks them into the Wuxing construction site, a few security measures are bypassed with the help of specifically designed one-use tools used by Vermillion, unlikely to work any time later. Sneaking through the site the next obstacles are taken comparatively easily. Then a guard blocks their way, but Laz is known as one of the most devastating melee fighters out there. Not a problem. Mr. T's skill at the more esoteric art of being charismatic with proper etiquette surpass the next obstacle, even with the more rough-edged Laz at his side. But then it is a climb deep down ventilation shafts. Magic is no option, too many spirits about that would notice these auras. A fall, one of the pipes was not yet properly affixed is the first sign that the run is not going as planned. Vermillion gets tangled by some black ICE suppressing alerts to go off. Unfortunately, the guards on this level were on alert and move in to investigate the commotion. This is when Laz stops being a 'delicate' elf. His LMG comes out and auto fired arguments start to speak for the magical adept. It is at that time that at the very last moment Mr.T recognizes the trap he saw this morning in a vision. A quick argument among the runners and they start to retreat. Vermillion is hacking her ass up to cause as many distractions as possible to allow the two mages an easier retreat, following the insights from Mr.T's vision. In the end the two barely manage to get out, pumped out seriously as is Vermillion after her decking marathon against the Wuxing ICE. In the end it is proven that this was a test by Laz's contact to probe the security of the place. And the team did quite admirably, descending far deeper than hoped into the more secret parts of that building. Sun Feb 14 10:44:28 2021 Denver, Asia Town, February 10th 2081 Amarra had been hoping for some easy work to the side. The job Tanaka assigned to her though went all ways south almost straight from the beginnings. She had been asked to listen in to some Yakuzas as they were preparing for a strike against a target that might be of interest to his Corporation, the problem was, he had forgotten to mention some vital information about this job. Amarra had sneaked in to listen, successfully finding a good spot for it too and she had been getting the hoped for information. But then she suddenly noted this guy sitting beside her, lazily and relaxed as fuck. "So, little spy.", he said with some Japanese accent. "What do you intend to do now, that you know things you should not?", he asks her. Amarra is not wasting time on answering and tries to disable the guy with a few well placed Karate strikes. Seems he had reason to be as relaxed as he was, so the joke was on him. A couple of exchanged blows later the now injured Amarra, victim to what seemed to be killing hands, manages to escape the Adept with some quite dirty tricks used on her part. Hastening through the Asia Town crowd, the young woman dives into one of the many food parlors grabs herself some random props and manages to disguise herself good enough that the chasing adept passes her by. Waiting a few second after the man has passed she then tries to leave using a different vector. To her dismay she finds the route blocked by the hunter, who somehow had guessed her route. Another fight ensue, this time blades are used due to more space being available, dealing another light wound for the chance to finally shake her pursuit Amarra escapes. And arrives with her information to inform Tanaka, barely in time. Her reward and as a bonus, magical healing are hers. Just another day in the Shadows for someone as her. Wed Feb 10 13:12:56 2021 Denver, around I-25, February 9th 2081 Alice has slipped into her Crazy Dancing Woman skin and invited over Class 13 from Reno. For those not in the know, that's where the Djotto-Serri has it's University. Today's exercise is dunking into a strange culture (for most of them) and learning how to blend in. "Why is that important? Because they always geek the mage first. If you blend in you are less easy to kill.", she tells them. The kids look at each other then shrug and simply follow her lead, wading into the night live of a city in full swing of what can only be called a culture shock for those not used to this. Somehow the 'mad' teacher helps her students to blend in. They have a crazy laugh seeing her in a fully fledged Geisha setup, dancing with the customers of one of the parlours, those customers never realizing that she is not part of the places staff. Then it gets out where those elaborate paper dragons pick Alice's attention. She slips under one of them, causing it to have a very … twitchy tail indeed. Again the students are close to collapsing from laughing at the teachers antics. Still, somehow they all realize that at the end of day they all have learned a massive amount of things about Asian culture, Chinese especially. Things are getting even better as they get a guided tour from Alices 'front man' inside that paper dragon. Seems she has not passed in there fully unnoticed after all. But after the day is over numbers are exchanged between Hoshiro Tanemura and Alice, the two clearly interested in meeting again for more shenanigans. Tue Feb 9 14:15:15 2021 Denver I-25, February 9th 2081 Celebrations are going on what usually is one of the main arteries of Denver. The Interstate has been closed up for today ranging from East Hampten crosses it, down to E-470, which conveniently allows the construction work in the former area of The Sticks, what used to be part of the Warrens, to continue. Huge scaffolding platforms have been raised on both sides of the highway to allow everyone to be part of the grandiose Chinese New Year Parade that is done this year. Wuxing, being the main sponsor, has donated huge vector thrust platforms to carry sceneries from Chinese mythology. Laser shows and life performances on those platforms with be on display all day today, with several passes made. One every 6 hours, the first started on midnight. All over Asia Town and deep into the CAS sector east of I-25, where the main festivities are held, the Asian community has organized all kinds of Open Air and club setups to celebrate. Wed Jan 27 14:37:29 2021 Denver, End of January 2081 Excitement in the Asian community has been growing for the change into the year of the Ox on February 9th, 2081. Celebrations seem to be promising to get much more interesting with the strongly increased presence of Wuxing, building a Mega-Tower in what has once been the southernmost parts of the Warrens, giving the entire area between the construction site of that new tower and Asia Town a much stronger Asian influence. The Megacorp is also rumored to add a considerable amount to the festivities held in Denver this year. A way to bribe the ancestors and spirits to stay in good humor towards the new building. Rumors have it, that the Asian underground also is busy working under the shadow of the ongoing construction, expanding eastward into CAS Sector. The tension that has already been high before are also fired by the fact that many changes in 'management' of those orgs have happened and seemingly it is seen as a good 'sign' to start the new year with winnings in territory. So, their underlings are working harder to make these things happen. Of course, the other local orgs, like the Mafia are not just watching passively. Things are probably going to be interesting for the next weeks. Until February 9th at the very least. DSF certainly is on high alert, though their initial fervor seems to have calmed down a bit by now.