Emergence - Tlaloc's Pox

Runners: Kitsune, Polo, Sirius, El Torro, Spirit, Ghost,

Sojourner

The runners were hired for an urgent mission – they suspected by Aztecnology. A rogue AI, calling itself Sojourner had taken over a orbital “agricultural research” station ( or bioweapons facility). It was holding the resident crew hostage and threatening to start dropping the station’s payload on major population centres unless the megacorps met it’s demands – the immediate release of any an all Ai’s they had in captivity. In order to prove it’s capability it was launching a sample of what it could do down into the Seattle area. The payload was in a drone on a final orbit before re-entry – the Runner’s mission was to get to the landing site and secure the sample before any other corp or government assets could get there.

As they headed off into the Barrens – the likely landing site according to the Johnson, Ghost informed them that things would be complicated by a major snowstorm heading in from the north. Polo and LT diverted to a sports goods store and picked up some winter gear and sure enough as they headed into Redmond the storm hit and snow began to fall. As they cruised the area, Mr Johnson fed them continual updates as to the latest trajectory of the incoming package and its probable landing zone - the Ames Lake neighbourhood. Though the driving conditions were appalling and the snowfall reached blizzard proportions, they made good time to the lakeshore. Given the fact the woods surrounding the lake still survived and hadn’t been chopped down for firewood years ago there must be some pretty powerful nature spirits guarding the area – but there was no sign of them.

While Ghost hacked Seattle airport's radar system to help track the incoming drone, Sirius, Polo and LT got out in the cold with binoculars, relying on their themographic and low-light augmentations to help them pierce the stormy conditions. Eventually prompted by a warning from Ghost, they spotted something crashing through the clod cover a couple of clicks to the north. Piling into the vans they headed for the landing zone hoping to get there first.

It took them a while to get there as the driving conditions had worsened further and the roads weren’t good to begin with, and by the time they arrives – someone had beaten them to the landing zone in some waste ground. Fortunately they were local gangers – members of the Human Army – rather than serious opposition. They debarked from the vehicles and Sirius took the whole bunch of them out with a single manaball spell. Unfortunately the package was gone! There were tracks of a motorbike tracks leading away, but as the tracks were rapidly filling with snow, so no way to follow.

Sirius and Polo, bundled two of the gangers into the back of the vans, while LT with ruthless efficiency capped the rest of them. As they sped away from the site they saw what looked like a military chopper incoming – though how the pilot was managing to fly in these conditions was anybody's guess and as couple of vans sped past them going the opposite direction they could head the familiar sound of gunfire echoing.

Trying to rouse the gangers proved fruitless – and they were quickly booted out the back of the speeding vans. Ghost managed Carnation Fire Department

to track down the location of the Human Army’s clubhouse – what had once been the fire department of the town of Carnation a mile or so to the east. Heading there, they parked up the vans and began to scout the area. Polo made her way to the back exit while LT Ghost and Sirius took up position out front. Kitsune, taking a can of explosive foam the Ghost tossed to him, ghosted his way to the large vehicle doors at the front of the fire station.

On Polo’s word the assault began – Kitsune blew the doors and LT and Sirius went in guins blazing. Polo went in the back door – but only after shouting out that they were the Ork army come calling!

Death in a Snowstorm

The gangers had little chance against the Runner’s assault and in short order there were dead gangers everywhere. Polo and Ghost headed upstairs to search for the package, but apart from a couple of what were obviously ganger’s girlfriends huddled in terror in one of the bedrooms, found nothing. While Kitsune and LT paced about downstairs, Sirius went to retrieve the van from the waste-ground across the road. As left the fire-station she heard the familiar sound of rotor blades coming in from the south out of the leaden sky. As the snow began to fall again, six figures in military-grade armour rappelled out of the chopper behind the station. She immediately commed the others with a warning, as the chopper rose up and swung round towards the front of the building.

Forewarned of the incoming danger, Kitsune and LT went out the front door of the fire-station just as the assault team came in the back. Unfortunately this placed them right in the sights of whomever was piloting the chopper and a rocket arced out from it’s weapons pod and detonated between them, throwing both to the ground badly injured. A second rocket arced towards the team’s van; fortunately Sirius was far enough away that although blown off her feet, she only suffered minor injuries. Polo, hearing the explosions decided to go out of the window and dropped down on to the snow-covered flat roof below her. In the room across the way after a brief attempt to hack the chopper outside failed, Ghost made the decision to set up an ambush.

Kitsune and LT got to their feet as a fusillade of bullets came out from the front door of the fire-station, though both took a hit, they managed to make it to the cover of the tree-line. Polo, after a minor mishap, managed to get down off the roof and also made for the cover of the trees. Sirius got to her feet, noting the van was a smoking ruin and the weather was rapidly worsening again, decided she needed to locate new wheels. Figuring that the ganger’s transport had to be nearby she headed for what looked like an abandoned building across the road. Ghost’s ambush didn’t quite go as planned. He managed to get of a long-burst at one of the enemy team, wounding him, but the guy’s team-mate retaliated with a frag grenade and everything went black!

As the weather worsened further the chopper swung rounded and landed out the back. From her vantage point polo could see the assault team bugging out, two of them carrying the prone body of Ghost. Sirius called to say she had located the ganger’s bikes in the abandoned building and Kitsune pointed out it was worth searching the bikes in case the package was still there. As the others arrived, Sirius located the package in a compartment in the fuel tank. Kitsune put the call into Mr Johnson and they arranged a drop-off point for the package after the storm abated. Polo retrieved the ganger’s commlinks from the fire-station and deciding this area was too much of a target, they headed out into the storm to find somewhere to wait out the snow. They went carefully navigating the bikes through the snow, eventually finishing up in a Stuffer Shack - the only place open at that time of night in a snowstorm!

Meanwhile, several miles away, in a clearing on the shores of Ames Lake, inside a chopper grounded by the bad weather, the merc team’s hacker was attempting to hack into Ghost’s commlink. He succeeded only insofar as triggering Ghost’s cranial bomb.

Boom!

Friends: Aztechnology

Foes: Human Army, Humanis Policlub

World events: Emergence of Sojourner -the first publicly known AI since the Crash 2.0