Shadowrun 4E: Ghost Cartels, Chapter 1: A Stranger in our House

<Roger that, me and Sparks'll follow her.
Gears>

Gears will use the coordenates of the car's position given by Nova to follow her without being noticed.

You are following the womans movements to a parking garage in downtown, but since you are only following the cars movements you lose her there. As far as Kitaru knows, the Watcher she summoned is still on her but hasnt reported back.

In the meanwhile, Xa Firebird returns to another one of the First Nations safehouses in Redmond, but another unusual thing happens there: Instead of entering the building, Xa apperently lies in wait at some distance, observing the entrance without getting seen by the guards. 20 minutes later, 5 gangers exit the safehouse and drive away in a GMC Hermes. Xa quietly mounts his cyclops monocycle and appears to be shadowing the other car in some distance.

While this is going on, Nova is making some progress on the backtrack of the womans car owners, but she isnt done yet.

<Well, she's parked her car, so we lost her. Me and Sparks will decide what to do now. I see that Xa's still moving, what happened Kitaru?
Gears>

Turning to face Sparks, he asks him:

"Shall we try and ask or look around for her, or do we follow Xa? He's on the move again, which isn't in his usual behaviour."

Sparks
"Xa's the primary, right? Don't think J will be too happy if we leave him behind to look for someone else," Sparks replies.

<I'm here shadowing Xa. It seems he himself is shadowing a group of 5 of his own gangers. I'll let you know if I see anything else.>

"Very well then. Hold tight."

<Me and Sparks'll go back you up since we got a dead end here and him following his own goons is big. Maybe later Nova will get us something on the girl.
Gears>

Gears then speeds up and moves out to catch up with Kitaru and follow Xa.

Gears and Sparks manage to meet up with Kitaru while she is following Xa, who is still shadowing the car of the other gang-members. They drive into a warehouse district in Everett and they arrive at an outer gate of a warehouse with the insignia KondOrchid on it in large AR letters. 2 guards open the gate and let the car in.
In the meanwhile Xa parks his monocycle in a dark corner and starts climbing up an adjacent building. From there he proves to be a suprisingly skilled burglar as he shoots a grappling gun over the fence and quickly glides over there without attracting any attention of the guards.

Sparks
"Think it's microdrone time again..." he says quietly, keeping an eye on the Astral to make sure they were unobserved.

"Don't worry, I'm on it."

Gears parks the bike out of view, but close enough that the micro drone could enter the warehouse without much trouble. He tries to find a confortable position to be and logs into the drone with hot VR.

< TO: Kitaru; Sparks
When I'm in it's hard to notice things from my meat body. If they see us out here, message me.
Gears>

Halfway through the way, he sends another message:

<Do we have anything on KondOrchid?
Gears>

Kitaru parks her bike next to Gear's van, and watches his body. While waiting she talks to Sparks, "I do wonder who the woman was; I hope the facial recognition software will help. I am a little worried that my watcher spirit never came back."

While none of you can place the name KondOrchid from the top of your head, a very simple matrix search reveals a bit of basic information:

KondOrchid is an AA Corporation, headquartered in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
A double-A rated transport and shipping conglomerate, KondOrchid got the much sought AA designation back in 2061.

Gears manages to get his microdrone into a good position to observe the procedings. He finds Xa Firebird on the roof of the warehouse, observing the dealings below with his cybereyes. Downstairs the GMC Hermes of the First Nation is beeing loaded with large wooden cases by some of the gangers together with a few warehouse workers, while a couple of wellarmed asian men stand watch. To the side the oldest of the First Nation members talks with an asian troll and a latino human, all of which seem to be in charge of their respective groups.

In the meanwhile, Nova finally finishes her backtrack. She finds that the owner of the mystery womans car, through a couple of shell corporations is none other than the Seattle branch of Lonestar.

Gears
"Watcher spirits are flaky though, and not too bright," Gears replies to Kitaru.
He turns to the woman.
"You'd know if the spirit was disrupted though, right?" he asks.

"I should, and I know they are not too bright, but I'm still concerned. I wish we knew who she was. I guess I should practice my summoning skills so I can try to get bigger spirits someday."

Gears, uses this oportunity to take various pictures, not only of the dealing, but of Xa observing it as well.

<K', it looks like our man Xa is himself spying on First Nation dealings. I see more asians, probably the same group that Littletree met, and it looks like they're selling a drone. I'm sending pics attached to you all. The bosses seems to be discussing, I'll see if I can listen in. Any news on the car?
Gears>

Gears tries to listen in on the conversation while staying out of view.

Spoiler

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Perception check (Sensor [1] + Rating [2] + Hot VR [2] + Control Rig [2] + Handling [1] = 8 DP)

[roll0]

Edit: So, half hits and a glitch at the same time? That's my luck, I guess.

Edit 2: I'm curious to see what the glitch gives me, though.

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the boni from handling and control rig dont really apply to perception checks through drones. They are only apply to vehicle tests, but from my point of view they make sense for infiltration checks as well. Anything where movement and maneuverability are an issue. But not perception.
So I removed the last 3 dice from your roll which means three successes and two 1s, so I dont have to wrack my brain around what a glitch on a perception check means.
:smalltongue:

It takes about 2 minutes for the drone to get into the building to be able to listen in on the conversation (before it was looking through a window on the roof). When it does the loading of the van seems almost complete so it manages only to hear the final few words. First the ganger says someting about "3000 doses", and then they say their farewells, but luckily for you they use names doing so. The ganger is called "Blood of the Buffalo", the Troll "Mr Yakamura", and the latino "Mr. Záfon". Then the gangers get into the van and leave.

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Hint: check the information you already uncovered. I´ve put them into the second post of the OOC thread. Some of those names should be familiar.

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Well, I can't blame you for that, a perception glitch sounds a bit hard to gauge. And noted on the rig and handling boni. :smallwink:

<Big news. Not only it was a big deal (3k doses involved), but the big boss Buffalo was here. Plus one Yakamura, likely Kaz Yakamura, a Lt from the Komun´Go Seoulpa Ring. There were also someone called Záfon. They're gone now, but I'll stick around a little more to see if our pal Xa isn't done for the night. If this is it, shall we pick this intel, plus whatever we already have on him and on the mysterious girl, wrap it up and send it to Mrs. Johnson?
Gears>

Gears then tries to have line of sight to Xa, the main target, and see what he tries to do. If Xa leaves, so'll Gears with his drone.

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Another Seatle Street Gangs check to see what Gears knows about this Mr. Záfon fella.

[roll0]

Plus, let me guess, the inside man on that dossier on post 2 is Xa? :smallwink::smalltongue:

"That is big. I think this is exactly the sort of thing we should tell Ms. Johnson about. Nova, have you had any luck yet with the facial recognition?"

Sparks
"Hope J is satisfied, I really need this payday, know what I mean?" Sparks says.

<So, the mystery girl has a car owned by LoneStar? She told him to be carefull, so maybe he's a mole from LoneStar? There were an inside man in the LS dossier, and it could explain the well protected comm. Better report to Mrs. Johnson then. Anyone wants to do it, or should I?

RE: Paycheck
I think after this I think she'll be satisfied. Those creds are as good as ours, I think.
Gears>

Again, Gears'll try to keep an eye on Xa, in case he wants to give us any more juicy bits of information. :smalltongue:

TO: Mrs. Johnson
Subject: Xa Firebird's Surveilance

<Target had an intimate encounter in a motel in Tacoma this night. He and the woman (unknown identity) seemed to know each other, having a private conversation after intercourse. Key words heard were "progress", "careful", "trust", "opportunity" and "supply". We obtained visual on her face (images attached to this message).

Further investigation on her lead to the discovery that her car has property of the Seattle branch of LoneStar. We also had found a while back a LS dossier that mentioned a mole from them inside First Nations. It could be concluded that Firebird is this inside man.

After this encounter, Firebird tailed some First Nation members to a warehouse (location: *warehouse location*), sneaking into the premises and spying from the roof right afterwards (photos of him spying are also attached). The meeting he surveilled had the presence of the First Nation's leader, Blood of the Buffalo, an asian Troll, Yakamura, who we think may be the Komun´Go Seoulpa Ring's Lt. Kaz Yakamura, and one Mr. Záfon, latino, current relation and affiliation unknown, and involved the trade of 3k doses, likely of tempo, and a GMC Hermes, the one Firebird followed. Firebird is still currently on the premises, or at least his cyclops monocycle still is.

I'm also sending what we've found on him so far.

Waiting further instructions,
Gears>

Only half a minute after Gears sent the message, all of your commlinks recieve a group call from Mrs. Johnson. From her voice you can tell that she is anxious and in a hurry, even though she tries not to let it show.

"Good evening everyone.

First I´d like to thank you for your good work on this job. The second half of your payment will be transferred shortly.

But second, and more important right now, I have an important time-sensitive follow up job: Xa Firebird cannot be allowed to ever report back to his employer and all evidence he gathered about the meeting tonight needs to be destroyed.
For this Im offering you another 5k each. Do we have a deal?"

Sparks
Sparks mumbles and glances around nearby buildings for a good vantage point where he can gain line of sight on Xa.

I'll look for a similar building, to set up at...

<so, how would you like to handle this guys? S,D, or P ? //Typhoon>

TO: Mrs. Johnson
Subject: Next assigment.

<I'd be up for it, if the others are as well.
Gears>

TO:Typhoon
Sparks
Kitaru
Nova
Subject: Plan of attack.

<Firebird'll likely go back to his monocycle. That could be a good spot for an ambush, plus me and maybe Nova could try to sabotage his vehicle or try a makeshift trap as well. I do have some explosives on hand.
Gears>

Gears then logs off the drone, ordering it to find Xa. If the teams thinks sabotage/planting explosives is a good idea, he'll move as quickly as possible to set it up. Then/otherwise he'll go to a good vantage spot, probably following someone with more fighting experience then him, like Sparks.

While you are still on the call with Mrs. Johnson, you notice that Xa Firebird is already on his way out and is just climbing back over the fence the same way he got in there.

Typhoon estimates that he doesnt have the time to set up on to of a building before Xa reaches his monocycle. If he wants to engage the target here he has to do it on ground level and basically in the open.

If Gears wants to sabotage the monocycle physically, he has to do so very fast and also hope not beeing noticed. He has about 30 seconds until Xa should be in sight of his cycle again(which means that there isnt enough time to get out and ready his explosives). On the other hand Nova already has hacked into the monocycles node and could certainly cause an accident, although its hard to make certain that it is a fatal one.

<alright, forget that, I have a clear line of sight to her right now; can engage with CQC now, can pull out from back MR/LR to guarantee takedown, nervious about SP, so, engage? //Typhoon>

I'll go ahead and get out of my car, open the rear driver's side door, and discreetly slide open the smuggler's compartment.

Sparks

"Once he's on the monocycle, we might lose him. Let's move to somewhere we can see his ride," Sparks whispers to Gears.

"Are you able to tell if there are any cameras nearby?" he asks.

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Assuming we don't have line of sight on Xa right now.

"Lose him? We can track his monocycle, plus, I am a very good driver. Remember when those yakuza noticed us when we were trailing Littletree? I didn't even need to use all my tricks on that one."
- Gears whispers back, speaking plainly just like if he was stating a fact, the smallest hint of smugness in his voice. He stops to think for a second or two, then continues, this time with some embarrassment. "I mean, sure, I'm not the stealthiest driver, but if he flees from us it's not like he'll simply forget we jumped him, right? But understood, better to not start a shootout in the middle of the city. Lead on, I'll follow." Gears draws his Ares Predator IV, takes a deep breath and follows Sparks.

As Sparks asks Gears, he answers: "I can see if I spot one or if my scan picks one up, provided it isn't hidden. I'm afraid that finding any hidden ones before Firebird gets here will be very dificult, as he'll be here shortly."

Kitaru

Well, this isn't exactly my area of expertise, so I'll just do whatever you guys think is best. And if you have room Gear, I'd like to ride with you. You are a much better driver than I am.

TO: Kitaru
<Sorry, but I'm already giving Sparks a ride, so no extra room.
Gears>