Welcome back Chooms to our story. Our Edgerunner gang going from strength to strength despite what Night City throws at us. This is more of the story, more close-cut deals, betrayals, uneasy alliances and unexpected opportunities.
Paltrowe
So, there we were successfully hitting the Kodiak gang when I received a call on my agent. Paltrowe, wanting help. Seems I was right, there was a traitor in her team, and she wanted to set them up. We obliged for eddies of course and agreed to run a truck to three sites under the pretence we were carrying valuable data files, which would be too good an opportunity to miss out on and steal. It turns out though that aside from any attempt to uncover her corporate rival, we were to be taken care of as a loose end.
The trouble for Paltrowe though is that we were already quite suspicious. When we picked up the troubling scent of explosives in the laundry cart we had just unloaded, we ran for cover, moments before it exploded. We took to the truck to head out, our sniper on a high point alerting us to an imminent drone strike. We had barely driven off when we were forced to stop and take them out. After a brief firefight, the drones were down and guessing Paltrowe had set us up, we evacuated back to our new base.
Drone
While we were contemplating our next steps, the word came in of a drone crash in the hot zone. Getting in there early meant we had a chance of salvage before some of the local Maelstrom gang turned up. They had sent out a scout party, but we had hired help and had already prepared an ambush. When they came it was just as well. Their armoured ice-cream van got hit and they piled out to evade our incoming attack. We took them down and scrambled to retrieve the large military drone before racing off in our truck before the larger Maelstrom contingent showed up. So, we had a drone. A valuable piece of kit but first we had to stop and disable the tracker on it then head to base to analyse the data from the cameras.
Entente
The data we extracted was incredible. A ship was heading towards the coast. A huge super tanker that looked old, most likely from before the war. Probably spent years adrift in the Pacific. Footage indicated that as the drone approached the automated defence systems opened fire and forced the drone away, eventually leading it to crash land. Interesting and it gave me an idea. We could use this data as a bargaining chip, so we placed the tracker in an unused but familiar location and waited with hired help on standby.
It wasn’t too long before a Militech Osprey landed and outstepped Paltrowe with a couple of goons and perimeter guards. I called her on the agent placed next to the tracker and much to her surprise we were revealed to still live. I offered her peace. She had attempted to kill us, but more importantly she still owed us eddies for our work. I indicated we had valuable information, but before we could discuss details one of her corporate rivals tried to take her out.
They failed, but it got messy. We fought back, scrambled to the Osprey and as they brought up a missile launcher, I ordered the bird to fly. Then I realised Sharp and his sniper girl Shana were still on the ground. We took out the launcher and flew off as they fought off a few remnants. But we had bigger fish to fry and one of Palrowes goons went cyberpsychotic and tore into several former buddies. Eventually Menendez threw him out of the plane only to hear an explosion seconds later as he turned into a bomb. Eventually we evacuated and heard over the comms that Sharp and Shana had made it to safety. Paltrowe then agreed to a rendezvous to discuss the ship.
Shootout at the Needs Want
So, there we were, Paltrowe and I discussing working together. She paid us what was owed then we got down to further business. Hard to believe maybe, but then it’s the Night City way if you want to get your hands on untold wealth you can forgive an attempt on your life especially if you have something to offer. I had that alright, not just the data on the ship, but I had up my sleeve some dirt uncovered by my covert ops Dice and netrunner, Spice, plus what braindance recordings I had made of our interactions, not that Paltrowe knew at this stage.
The conversation however was rudely interrupted by the Kodiaks who wanted to send a retaliatory message. They pulled up outside, but I had our sniper looking out so we were warned. Sadly, for some of the patrons, they were not prepared and were gunned down as the Kodiaks opened up on the bar with heavy weapons. Paltrowes nomad driver helped us drive them out with serious SMG autofire and we took down one of their sub-commanders plus a couple of others before they hauled the bodies out and drove off.
The bar was a mess, bodies, glass, masonry were scattered, but we were alive. I helped rally the patrons into a clean-up whilst Quack took care of the wounded. It was then I had a call from Dice. She sounded alarmed and told me that she and Spice had been in a firefight. Apparently, Spice had been caught by some corporate black ice and they had to flee. We guessed the Kodiaks had corporate sponsors, but this was still a surprise as the Kodiaks had more support than we anticipated. Thankfully Dice had escaped and was laying low. Unfortunately, Spice had been taken. As we waited for Menendez to recover from his wounds we planned a raid on the Kodiaks.
About the author:
As well as playing board games, Neil has been playing a variety of roleplaying games since 1982, including creating campaigns as a GM and espousing the art and craft of being a good GM and the therapeutic value of games generally.
