Work Text:
May 12, 2075.
Antwerpen, United Netherlands.
G-Lag is walking through the rain across Antwerpen. Though part of the United Netherlands nowadays has the old Flemish city managed to maintain it’s own culture and distinctive personality. A rarity in the 6th world where corporate propaganda stamps out most other forms of cultural expression. Not too surprising perhaps. Flanders has always tried to maintain it’s own identity, even back when it was still part of Belgium.
Rain was pouring from the sky in large quantities and his raincoat was doing little to prevent it from seeping everywhere, even in his shoes. The ork mumbled a swear under his breath. This meeting better bear any fruit. At least the rain wasn’t acidic this time. Ever since the black flood has weather in the low countries been somewhat… unpredictable. He took a walk around the big cathedral that was in the middle of the city square. There, adorned with neon signs he saw his destination. “Paters Vaetje”, an old fashioned style bar and café. The place his fixer had told him to go to meet this Regulus representative.
Megacorps often get into spats with each other but open warfare is something they often avoid, is bad for business you see. So if a corp needs something done discreetly they often hire Shadowrunners. People like him who fall outside of the system and get stuff done in ways that no corp or government can. This plausible deniability is very important, it allows corps to frag each other over without dirtying their hands. To facilitate this however the corp often employs a pseudo third party to negotiate for them. This party has many nicknames. In North America they call him mister Johnson, in Japan Takanaka-san, in Germany Herr Schmidt and here in the United Netherlands is he called Meneer de Vries. Not surprising considering that Regulus used to be a Dutch company.
G-Lag entered the bar and was greeted with an almost ancient interior. The first thing he noticed was the brown colored furniture. Wooden tables, paneling and bar stools with brown leather adorned the place. He was surprised. This stuff belonged in a museum. The ork was pretty sure that the interior hadn’t been changed since 1961 but it did not matter, he was not here to chitchat or enjoy the scenery anyway.
He walked to the barkeep, a grizzled old human with one hell of a moustache. “I am here to see Meneer de Vries” he began. The barkeep frowned. “She’s in the back, keep it quiet” he said with a tone of annoyance in his voice. G-Lag was tempted to ask further about why he referred to the contact as a she but he knew that it was best to just keep on walking with types like this. Not that he was scared, he could probably fold the old guy in two, but he did not want to draw unwanted attention to himself. Not yet anyway.
He walked through a door and into a damp passageway. Brick walls were surrounding him and only the dim light of an old incandescent light bulb told him which direction to go. He saw another door on the other side of the hallway. Old, wooden and with green paint flaking off it. The ork took a moment to compose himself and then knocked on the door twice. “Come in” a feminine voice said as he stepped through.
He came upon what used to be a small storage area. There were a few empty boxes left and on an old bar stool sat a tired looking woman in a corporate suit, smoking an e-cigarette. Not exactly the fanciest place for their negotiations. The woman may have been pretty at some point in her life but currently she looked tired and worn out. Her long black hair was unkempt and hung like a rag across her face as she wore a pair of glasses which couldn’t hide her expression of dullness as she looked at him with 2 empty eyes. “G-Lag I take it?” she said. The ork nodded. “Yeah that’s me”.
The woman pulled out an AR tablet and pulled up some files. “Alright let’s make it quick because I do not have a lot of time” she began. G-Lag interjected. “Sorry but was I was expecting a man. With your name and all”. She rolled her eyes. “Is this your first time running in the United Netherlands? Whatever you expected is none of my concern. You will have to deal with me, don’t like it? Then you can frag off somewhere else and we will find someone else” she snarled.
“I meant nothing by it!” the ork raised his hands defensively. “Just give us the job and I will be on my way again”. She adjusted her glasses. “You’d better”. She then looked at the files she had pulled up. “I have received the files your fixer has sent me. If this information is correct then you people should be perfectly suited for this job”.
G-Lag smirked. “Of course I could tell you more about how suited we are if I have more information on the job in question”.
“Quite right” De Vries responded. “As you are aware do I represent Regulus Joint Industries in this matter. To be quite frank are we dealing with a tricky situation that we would like to see resolved”.
G-Lag rubbed his chin. “What kind of situation?”.
De Vries responded: “The kind of situation that requires you all to take out a gang”.
The ork whistled through his teeth. “That is a difficult one”.
The corpo sent a file to his commlink.
“Regulus has been trying to get back into the mainland European market for a while now. To facilitate that are we building a facility near what used to be Scheveningen with equipment we were shipping in via Europoort. Unfortunately a lot of this equipment went missing so we sent in another team to investigate. They have not been heard from since”.
“I can see how that could cause complications yes” the ork said. “Do you know what happened to them?”.
The woman frowned but answered the question nonetheless.
“They were sent in with the same information we have provided you. According to intelligence we’ve managed to obtain, did they screw up their preparations and got into an altercation with one of the local gangs. We believe this gang is involved with the disappearance of our equipment but we have not managed to confirm yet how exactly they are involved”.
Her tone was cold with a hint of anger attached to it. It became obvious to G-Lag that some higher up at Regulus had fragged up and made the situation more complex then it needed to be.
“This is why we contacted your fixer. We need a group with experience with organized crime. We want you to figure out what happened to the first team and finish what they started. Take out the gang one way or another and find out what happened with our missing equipment”.
She adjusted her glasses again as she finished swiping all the digital information to G-Lag’s commlink.
“Taking out gangs is a dangerous business” G-Lag began. He did not like this situation at all, it reeked of messy cleanup work. “If we take them out someone might retaliate. Do we know which gang we are dealing with?”.
Meneer de Vries adjusted her seating on the bar stool. “Unconfirmed but we have reasons to believe it is the Rotterdam Bird Mafia”.
The ork exhaled sharply with the mention of that name. They were not the biggest group in town but they had a tendency towards ruthlessness. A group of Avian changelings who styled themselves after 1920’s Italian-American gangsters. It sounds silly but G-Lag knew that underestimating them was a quick route for a one way trip to the depths of the river Meuse. If the Rotterdam Bird Mafia was involved then he was not surprised that a rookie team ended up missing. Which also explained the annoyance of the corpo. Someone higher up had misjudged the situation and messed up badly.
“That is not a group to be taken lightly” the ork began.
De Vries interjected. “Can you do it? Can you take them out?”.
G-Lag rubbed his chin again. “We in all likelihood can, but it is gonna cost you”.
The ork knew that now he needed to negotiate. He did like his position, this AA corp was in a bad spot and he knew that he could use that to fleece out more money out of them then they would usually offer.
“We offer 5000 nuyen for this run. This includes all the information the last group had gathered and sent to us”. The woman said though she knew G-Lag was never gonna agree with that.
The ork shook his head. “Not enough. We might be facing stiff resistance. We need 10000 nuyen at least”.
He was not entirely bluffing. They would probably need to get heavy weaponry and special equipment, that stuff did not come cheap.
“7000 nuyen” the woman countered.
“9000” the ork responded.
She groaned, “8000 nuyen and we will give you a specialized piece of equipment. That is my final offer”.
G-Lag stroked his chin again, pretending to give the offer some thought. “Deal. In what manner should we dispose of this gang?” he asked.
“Up to you. You can cut them to pieces and dump their remains from the top of the Euromast for all I care” she said coldly.
“Just make sure they are taken care off”.
He went through all of the info again and double checked all of the info before nodding. “In that case we have an agreement”.
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May 13, 2075.
Somewhere between Antwerpen and Breda(near the former border).
Madame Z was looking out of the window of the van all of them were sitting in. The changeling’s cat like eyes pierced through the grey environment and found not a whole lot of interest to look at. This region was mostly decaying industry and former agriculture. It had not been touched much after the black flood with lots of buildings of the 20th century still around.
“How long till we are there?” a voice said behind her.
Sledgehammer, the human street samurai was impatient.
“About 1.5 hours” said G-Lag, who was driving.
“Provided we don’t get stopped again by Uniforce”.
A groaning sound erupted from almost everyone. The private security company ran most of the road checks in the United Netherlands and most people hated them. If you ran in the low countries were they an omnipresent threat you had to deal with.
The ork addressed the dwarf sitting in the back.
“Beck, are the scramblers ready?” he asked.
The dwarf, a young woman responded.
“Ready, Freddy! If any cop tries to scan us they will see only what they need to see”.
“Good” G-Lag exhaled.
“I don’t fancy a shootout with the cops. We need to conserve ammo for whatever awaits us in Europoort”.
Madame Z looked at him.
“You are not convinced it is the Rotterdam Bird Mafia?”
G-Lag grinded his teeth.
“I am not sure. Stealing equipment like this does not fit their MO. And the information we’ve gotten from Regulus is sparse. I do think that they’re involved but they are not the only party here. I want you all to keep your eyes open and be on your guard. We might be walking into an ambush”.
The rest of them nodded in acknowledgment.
It was an eclectic bunch. G-Lag was of course their rigger. He drove cars and controlled drones for extra fire support. In a pinch was his help indispensable.
Beck was their decker. A young Dwarf woman who was eager to prove herself but who also knew what she was doing, provided she did not get carried away.
Sledgehammer was their street samurai. Augmented to hell and back, he was one of those silent types. No one knew where he came from or where he was going but he killed stuff good and that was all that mattered.
Finally there was Madame Z. A feline changeling vaguely resembling a cheetah. Their mage and eyes and ears on the astral plane.
The four of them crossed the border as they approached the Breda side of Brabantstad. The former cities of Roosendaal, Etten-Leur, Breda and Tilburg had long fused together with each other and everything in between to form a large sprawling metropolis. The old A16 highway however still existed as they drove past the office buildings and warehouses. It was not a long drive. Brabantstad was mostly wide, but not very tall and before they knew it were they already approaching it’s northern parts. A highway intersection was coming up. They could take the A59 and move deeper into Brabantstad in the direction of the former cities of Oosterhout and Waalwijk, or they could stay on the A16 and continue north to Europoort. G-Lag chose the latter.
As they went past the intersection they saw a traffic jam coming up. “Aw hell..” mumbled G-Lag to himself. Trouble was coming.
“Don’t do stupid drek” he began. “We’ve got another check coming up!”.
The rest groaned again. They hated Uniforce checks. It took forever and Uniforce needed very little provocation to kick your teeth in. These checks had not been that bad at first, but a series of bombings in Europoort had caused the security force to get their shit together and the amount of checks had risen dramatically, along with the amount of incidents involving cop violence.
They lined up in the queue and waited for their turn. After what seemed like an hour, they had finally reached the checkpoint. A Uniforce cop wearing a black uniform shone a flashlight into the van.
“License and registration please” he said with a monotone.
G-Lag did not say a word and sent the digital info to the cop who then ran the file through a verification tool.
“Standby, we are scanning your vehicle” he said.
He looked at the info his commlink had sent to his eye implants. The license file checked out with a green check mark. He was still waiting for the scan results. A see through image of the van slowly appeared on his screen. Four passengers, and all the things you expect a van to have.
“Alright you’re clear, move along” he said as he beckoned his colleagues to send in the next vehicle.
As they drove off exhaled all of them loudly. It seemed the scramblers had worked.
“Fuck I hate Uniforce” Beck said. “Thank frag for those scramblers I coded eh?”, a smile appeared on her face.
Madame Z smiled. “Thank you Beck” she said in an oily voice. Clearly attempting to get under her skin a bit. They had a bit of a playful rivalry going on.
Sledgehammer said nothing as usual and instead just looked out of the window.
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May 13, 2075.
Europoort, Botlek Industrial area.
The group had parked the van somewhere out of sight, outside of the range of scanners and were walking ahead on foot. Pretending to be evening strollers they walked past the chain link fence that kept people outside of the Botlek. This industrial area was an unusual. It was ancient for one. Most industry in the former harbor of Rotterdam had been replaced or renewed one way or another but Botlek had not. If you pulled someone from the early 21st century in there then it would not look much different for them.
Old rusted chimneys were pumping out steam and other gases of the pollution variety while a patchwork of pipes created the metal monstrosity that was this refinery. By some miracle had this refinery weathered through the black flood which had covered this area with a thick layer of toxic sludge. Most of the sludge was gone now but if you went off the main roads then you could find some piles of it still around here and there, along with mutated critters whom would not mind having some metahuman for dinner tonight.
Madame Z stared at the refinery with intense eyes.
“What do you see?” Beck asked.
“Death and decay” the changeling answered. “The destruction of nature runs deep here. It has been going on for a long time”.
“Not surprising” G-Lag chimed in. “I don’t know why this country insists on keeping their old crap around. Between that bar in Antwerpen and this old ass refinery does it feel more like we are walking through a museum more then anything else”.
“The Dutch like their nostalgia I suppose” Beck responded.
“I guess losing most of your living space to a toxic flood does that”.
“It is more then that” Sledgehammer said, to the surprise of everyone. “They keep it around to maintain the rot, and the rot runs deep in these low countries”.
“You should have been a philosopher” G-Lag said jokingly.
The street samurai did not respond.
“In any case, we are not here for this refinery. We need to go to the warehouses west from here”.
They moved along. Leaving the old mesh of pipes and distillation columns behind them. It made way for grey warehouses and cranes. Large ships laid docked as some of those cranes were unloading containers from them. A process that had long since been automated. As they walked next to the road they saw the lights of industry in the distance. Eventually they reached what appeared to be some kind of shrubbery. Nature was a rarity over here so it was surprising to find these plants.
“According to the intel went the first team from this bush to an island in the middle of the river” G-Lag began. “After that the trail runs cold. They seemed to think that the group who stole the equipment was sequestered on an old ship somewhere”.
Madame Z checked out the bush. “These plants did not grow here by natural means” she said. “There is something keeping them here”.
“Like what?” Beck asked.
“I am not sure” Z responded. She looked into the distance at the island G-Lag had been talking about. “There is nothing there anymore” the changeling said.
“I would like to confirm that myself thank you very much” the rigger said somewhat annoyed.
He grabbed something out of one of his pockets and opened his hands. A small insect sized drone spread it’s wings and then flew off.
An MCT Fly Spy, a must have for any self respecting rigger. G-Lag looked through the drone’s cameras through his eye implants. He saw ships, industry and a deserted island.
At first the island seemed like nothing out of the ordinary but as he approached the north side he saw a large imprint at a spot of the island. Like something big and heavy had laid there.
“You are correct, they’re gone”. G-Lag said as he commanded his drone to return and caught it with his hand.
The changeling smiled. “Told ya so”.
“So I guess this means that we are back to square one?” Beck asked.
“Seems like it” G-Lag responded. “We’d better get out of here. There is nothing more for us to do at the moment here. Tomorrow I’d like you to look around on the Matrix about this fight De Vries mentioned. I find it hard to believe that something like that would go unnoticed”.
Beck nodded and with that they all walked off.
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May 14, 2075.
A shady hotel room near Europoort Central Station.
Beck was covered in wires. The dwarf was plugged into her cyberdeck and was fully immersed into the Matrix. She saw the garden that was her Matrix theme. A large variety of plants were visible to her, each one of them leading her to a different place in the Matrix. Touching a tulip caused a screen to open up in the center of the flower, showing a surprisingly old fashioned looking forum. This was the Dutch subforum of Jackpoint. A specific thread caught her attention.
[EXPLOSIONS AT BOTLEK?]
Opened 24-04-2075 23:17
>Mastermovies2026
“Hey does anyone know what is happening at Botlek because stuff is popping off right now. Just heard a massive explosion and gunshots”
>madam_jeanette
“I swear Henk if this is another one of your BTL induced fantasies..”
>tuinkabouter
“No he’s not making it up. I heard it as well. Was anyone in the neighborhood? I would check it out myself but I am currently occupied so to speak”
>013warrior
“@tuinkabouter is that an euphemism for something?”
>tuinkabouter
“@013warrior nothing you need to worry about…”
>Mastermovies2026
“@madam_jeanette THAT WAS ONE TIME! Also don’t use my name here thx.
I heard yelling just now, something is going on. I am not making this up I swear!”
>Petrus Donders
“I am in the area. I was doing one of my evening walks when I heard the same explosion. It is near the warehouses to the west of the old refinery. Moving closer now to investigate. Will see if I can get some footage”
>madam_jeanette
“@013warrior @tuinkabouter He means that he is fucking one of his floozies again”
>Mastermovies2026
“@Petrus Donders You are a gods send. Thank you so much. I will buy you a beer next time I see you. An actual beer. Not one of those fake substitutes”
>Petrus Donders
“Don’t celebrate just yet. Uniforce is swarming the place. Gotta be careful here but I did get some footage”
Attachment: weird_botlek_shit.mp4
>tuinkabouter
“Is that one of those islands in the middle of the river? Seems like a ship is docked there..
@madam_jeanette for the record I was sitting on the toilet but I am glad that you seem to think that I am attractive enough to be getting laid often”
>013warrior
“I did some checking of the local Matrix node and it seems that a press blackout is in force. @admins I suggest reinforcing our local IC’s in case Uniforce tries to crack down here as well.
Whatever is happening there has caught the attention of the authorities. Does anyone know if any of our teams were running here tonight?”
>Mastermovies2026
“@013warrior Not as far as I know. Could be a foreign team perhaps?”
>admin076
“Attention! A level 2 security net is now in force! Anyone not on encrypt level 7 or higher will be automatically banned”
>SYSTEM: User runwithminges has been banned!
>tuinkabouter
“Ha! Noob!”
>Petrus Donders
“I’ve made it out somehow. Uniforce was everywhere and all hell had broken loose. Seems like one of the local gangs was involved as well”
>madam_jeanette
“A gang war?”
>Petrus Donders
“Nah, they would not really fight their wars in a place like this. This involved runners”
>Mastermovies2026
“Probably a foreign team. Do we know anything about which corpo could be involved here?”
>Petrus Donders
“Which one isn’t involved would be the shorter answer…”
>madam_jeanette
“Could be anyone, but it could be related to that chemical spill that happened a few weeks ago at that SK subsidiary. If a team is indeed running then they have guts to go up against the dragon, either that or they are really dumb”
>tuinkabouter
“which probably explains the press blackout..
@Petrus Donders do we know anything about the gang?”
>Petrus Donders
“Nothing yet. Will have to dig into this later”
The thread then turned into mindless speculation. Beck scrolled further to a continuation thread that was made a few days later.
[Botlek incident, part 2. Uniforce strikes back]
Opened: 26-04-2075 15:38
>admin076
“Alright. I have made a new thread since the old one was shat up by drekposters and bots. Can we please try to keep it clean this time? I will be banning everyone that goes off-topic”
>Petrus Donders
“So here is what we know:
1. Two days ago a flurry of violence erupted at the warehouse area west of the Botlek refinery. Explosions and gunshots could be heard.
2. Investigations by jackpoint runners has revealed that it involved one of the local gangs(presumably the Rotterdam Bird Mafia) and a foreign team of shadowrunners. Outcome of this fight is unknown but neither groups have been heard from since(see attachment for details).
3. Uniforce and local corp security cracked down hard on the site. A press blackout was implemented and none of the local or international news sources reported on this. No statements have been made and they seem to want to sweep this under the rug.
4. We are currently investigating the identity of the runners. This is a community effort so if anyone knows anything about this then please let us know.
Try to keep speculation to a minimum and if you have info then please come with a source”
Attachment: info_botlek.txt
>boba_tea
“I have asked around among Seattle runners if they knew more about this but no one really knew anything. I got contacted by a guy from Denver who might know more though. Will keep you all informed as soon as I have spoken to him”
>tuinkabouter
“very good. Did anyone else ask around?”
>berndtdasbrot
“Not so much asking around but this little incident ruffled some feathers in Essen, AGS. SK corpos are currently on high alert and security has been tightened. Considering a SK subsidiary might be involved here I don’t think that this was a coincidence”
>Mastermovies2026
“What the hell did they do then if they managed to agitate the dragon that much? Isn’t this just another day in the office for SK?”
>berndtdasbrot
“SK has a near monopoly on heavy industry in the UNL, something that vexes most of the competition. Maybe one of their rivals tried something?”
>scouser66
“there have been rumours of Regulus wanting to get back into the dutch market..”
>Mastermovies2026
“Yeah but Regulus doesn’t really have the resources to really do much to SK right?”
>berndtdasbrot
“Maybe not but if they send in a team that deep into SK territory they could see it as a challenge to their authority. In either case this concerns more then just runners in Europoort chummers”
>boba_tea
“Sorry to butt into the conversation but I have gotten confirmation that one of the runners was indeed from Denver. It is of course difficult to get the full picture but I have compiled a document with some probable people who were involved here. @admins can we please get a lock on that document? Don’t want Uniforce to find out here”
Attachment: zzfwowpxmghe.iid
>admin076
“Granted”
SYSTEM: Lock applied.
Beck gazed upon the thread. Her efforts had been fruitful, she now had a list of probable individuals involved here. She touched a leaf of the plant that was displaying the thread and the flower quickly closed. The garden in her mindscape then quickly disappeared as she decoupled herself from the Matrix and landed back into meatspace.
“You got something?” G-Lag shot at her.
Beck nodded. “I found a few threads on the Dutch subforums of Jackpoint that have proven to be very useful. We have some info on the team involved here. I suggest we send this info to our fixer so he can get confirmation that this was indeed the team that got sent first.
G-Lag nodded. “Will do. Good job!”
Beck smiled at the orc. “All in a day’s work! What do we do now?”
Madame Z rubbed her fuzzy chin.
“Let’s summarize. Regulus wants to get back into the Dutch market. They ship equipment to Europoort. Said equipment gets stolen. Regulus sends in a team to investigate. This run completely goes haywire and they end up in some kind of shootout with a local gang. Uniforce gets involved and for some reason decides to completely cover up the whole thing. SK might be involved here as well but this is mostly speculation at this point. I am not sure where we can go from here”.
Sledgehammer opened his mouth and spoke softly.
“It is very likely that the gang got away. They know this region better then anyone and probably have more experience dealing with the local security forces”.
The changeling squinted her eyes a bit as she looked at the street samurai. “Is that something you suspect or do you know something we don’t?”
He shrugged in response. “Mostly speculation, but also personal experience”.
G-Lag nodded. “I agree. The Rotterdam bird mafia is our best bet. I am gonna ask around some of the local runners here to get more info on those avian assailants and see if we can get more out of them”.
Beck was putting away her stuff. “If the name of the game means going after the mafia then that is what we will do. I suggest we arm up. This might get ugly”.
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May 14, 2075.
Café “Het Dansende Paard” Europoort North.
Don Finch was annoyed. The changeling was chomping on a cigar with his beak as the foul smoke he exhaled filled the room. His subordinate on the other side of the room could barely breathe and could smell the stench through the filters of his implants, that’s how bad it was.
“Are yous stunad or what?” the Don bellowed angrily at the screen.
The corporate figure on the other side just smiled.
“This wasn’t part of the deal. Yous asked us to grab the stuff dem Regulus fellas have been shipping over and deliver it to one specific spot. We do that without complaining or anything else and suddenly a group of runners show up and bada boom our entire operation is in shambles. We barely manage to get out of that mess and now you want us to break into a Uniforce jail and kill those runners?” His eyes are bloodshot as he yells angrily.
The corpo on the other side of the line remains calm. “The contract you signed with us stipulated an emergency clause in the event something like this would happen. My employer is simply triggering this clause. Whether you like this or not is irrelevant”.
Don Finch nearly bit through his cigar when he heard this.
“IRRELEVANT? As far as I am involved is this extremely relevant! What do you boombots think will happen if we try this harebrained scheme of yours?”
“We’ve already anticipated that”, the corpo cut off the screaming finch.
“We regret deeply that the situation developed the way that it has, so to prevent it from deteriorating any further are we sending a few specialists to help you all out”.
The finch squinted his eyes. “What kind of specialists? Yous mean shadowrunners?”
“In a sense” responded the corpo. “They are already on their way and should arrive at your location shortly”.
The mob boss exhaled slowly as he calmed down a bit. “Okay good.. That’s good..”
“Don’t get me wrong, you’ve all fragged up pretty badly” the corpo’s tone was suddenly cold.
“But it is still salvageable. Just do what our specialists tell you to do and everything will work out as planned”.
With that was the connection severed. The Don got out of his chair and walked to a window, staring out of it. “It better” he mumbled to himself.
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May 15, 2075.
Some dark alley in Europoort.
Sledgehammer ran through the rain. Droplets of water bounced from his chrome arms and legs as he chased someone through an alleyway. The guy was fast, but sledge was faster. When he was close enough he jumped and tackled the guy to the ground.
“Argh! You drekking bastard!” the guy yelled. “Let me go!”
Sledge pulled out his knife and held it to the guy’s throat. “Not before you tell me what I want to know”.
“I already told you, I know nothing! Nothing I tell you!”. The man’s voice was panicked.
“That’s not what your friends told me” the street samurai said. “Last chance to spill the truth before I spill your guts”.
“Alright Alright! I’ll tell you! It was those changelings!¨ the guy began.
“What changelings?” Sledgehammer asked while poking his knife softly into the guy.
“The birds! The Rotterdam Bird Mafia! They got into a shootout with those shadowrunners! It’s the truth I swear!”
“Where can I find these birds?” the street samurai asked.
“North, Europoort North! They have a hideout there! Please that is all I know!” the guy begged.
“Where in North? Answer me!” sledgehammer said angrily.
“At the corner of straatweg en berglustlaan! There is an old house there. I swear that is all I know, please don’t kill me!”
Sledgehammer let go of the guy. “Was that so hard?” he said. He sheathed his knife and delivered a precision blow to the back of the head of the guy, knocking him out. Can’t have anyone chase him now can we? He then walked off with the new info he had acquired. As far as he was concerned were things going just fine.
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May 15, 2075.
Europoort Centraal, the metro station near the train station.
Madame Z stared at the lights in the station, seemingly unbothered by the crowd around her. She and Beck were boarding metro line E to Europoort North. Seemingly taking their time while their male compatriots were nowhere to be found.
“Z? You alright?” Beck asked.
“Hm? Oh yeah!” the cheetah like Changeling responded.
“I was just distracted”.
Beck frowned a little.
“You’d better not be distracted when we do our job”
The dwarf liked using euphemisms to hide their work while in public.
Z shook her head.
“You won’t have to worry about me” she said.
“I will make sure I’ve got the mojo to keep us all safe”
Just like that their metro train arrived as they stepped on board with the rest of the crowd.
---
Somewhere in North.
G-Lag and Sledgehammer had parked the van somewhere out of sight and were quiet. The ork was linked to another fly-spy as he flew around the neighborhood and got a better look at their target. It all looked so inconspicuous. Just a regular neighborhood like so many others. As he flew across the intersection he saw the target. Another mansion like so many. G-Lag steered the fly-spy to the back, looking for another way in. They were in luck, there was a garden behind the mansion with an easily jump able gate. Beck could probably easily detect and disable the hidden counter-intrusion measures that were there.
The ork flew back to the van and returned to his own body.
“Found anything?” Sledgehammer asked.
“Yeah, as expected is there a back entrance near the garden. I am sending the info to Beck as we speak” G-Lag responded.
“So our plan will proceed as we discussed it?” Sledge fidgeted with one of his guns.
“Looks like it!” the ork responded. “We’d better get ready to move soon”.
---
A metro station in North.
Beck and Z stepped unto the surface out of the underground confines of the metro station. The sky was dark because it was late in the evening at this point. Just the way they liked it.
“It should be a short walk to the target” Beck began.
“After that we wait for the signal and get this show on the road!”
She grinned at the thought of what was gonna transpire soon.
Madame Z was worried.
“I don’t want to alarm you” she began. “But something about this whole situation feels off”.
Beck frowned again. “In what way?”.
The dwarf had mixed feelings about her comrade. On one hand did she find the worrying of Madame Z to be annoying but on the other hand had experience thought them all that she was rarely wrong.
“I don’t know exactly. But I think we need to be very careful”. The changeling said.
Beck nodded. “I will inform G-Lag. Let him call the shots”.
They walked a good 10 minutes during which Beck discussed the situation with G-Lag. They’d decided to proceed carefully so now, as they approached the mansion was Beck projecting her AR screen to get a good look at what they were dealing with.
The counter-intrusion measures were… suspiciously standard. Mostly off the shelf cameras and movement detectors that any decker worth their salt could easily deal with. Beck did not trust this for one bit.
She spoke into her commlink.
“I don’t like this chief”. She said to everyone in the channel.
“It’s all standard drek. The only thing standing out is that infrared mesh close to the statue but that is easily circumvented. Are we sure this is the right place?”
G-Lag looked at sledge who just shrugged his shoulders.
“This should be the right place” the ork said.
“Z, what do you feel?”
The cheetah had closed her eyes and looked at the mansion using her sight on the astral plane.
“Difficult. There is definitely something here but I cannot really ascertain what. There is something clouding my vision”.
“Hm, that is not helpful” the ork said somewhat worried.
He did not like these odds.
“Alright everyone. We will proceed but very carefully and on my signal. Are you two in position?”
Beck’s voice rang in his mind.
“Standing by! Just give the word!”
G-lag took one deep breath and waited for a good 10 seconds. It all seemed so safe and tranquil.. He then decided to put an end to the tranquility.
“Everyone! Move in!”
With that signal shot Beck and Madame Z into action. Beck looked at her interface and began disabling the camera’s and motion detectors one by one. Child’s play for a skilled hacker like her. When everything was disabled she gave the signal.
“Net is down! Advance!”
G-Lag and Sledgehammer then stepped out of the van. From the back of the van a small dog like drone stepped out as well. It had a giant canister shaped object on it’s back as it lined up itself to the front door of the mansion on the other side of the road. There was a moment of silence before it then fired a rocket.
A explosion rocked the mansion as the doors were blown to bits. Almost immediately Sledgehammer sprinted across the street inside with G-Lag following him. The explosion was also the cue for Beck and Madame Z to jump the gate which they did without any issues.
Sledge pointed his gun into the hallway of the mansion, expecting a hail of bullets to be spat his way but there was nothing there. As G-Lag pulled up behind him they both had their guns drawn as they lined up against the wall. They moved to the closest door and Sledgehammer took point. After a quick countdown he kicked the door in and ran aside, pointing his gun at nothing because there was no one in the room.
“Where the frag is everyone?” mumbled G-Lag.
Meanwhile Beck and Madame Z were sprinting through the garden. It was a rather nicely maintained garden actually, with lots of flowers around. However they did not have time to register this as they made their way to the back entrance. Beck looked at the security measures to check if anything was flaring up but there was nothing. Everything was disabled which worried her a lot.
“Z!” she said under her breath. “Do you see anything clearer now?”
The changeling looked with her astral eye.
“The top floor is magically shielded. I think there is someone up there. Another mage” responded the cheetah.
Beck nodded before she kicked in the backdoor and ran inside. Much like Sledgehammer and G-Lag did she not encounter any resistance or anyone at all.
After they had cleared out the bottom floor did the two groups converge together again.
“Where the hell is everyone?” asked G-Lag. “I fired a fragging missile in their front door!”
“Upstairs probably” said Beck. “Z thinks there is someone there”.
Sledgehammer took point again as they went up the stairs. At the top floor they saw a single door opposite of the staircase. They lined up to the sides of the door and counted down from three as the street samurai kicked the it in.
The moment the door got turned into splinters a loud explosion could be heard as a slug the size of a man’s head impacted the back wall with Sledge barely being able to dodge it.
A voice then said: “We’ve been expecting you”
---
As the Shadowrunners looked into the room they saw a corpulent avian changeling sitting in a big chair behind a desk. He was smoking a cigar and the stench hit their nostrils like a freight train hits a car that had picked a bad spot to park. Don Finch then addressed the intruders.
“Make one wrong move and we’ll turn you into Swiss cheese, capiche? ”.
The group nodded.
The shadowrunners were then slowly herded into the room as all the avian goons and crooks had their guns pointed at them. Behind Don Finch stood two people who kind of stood out. An elf with a mohawk and a human wearing a gas mask.
“So yous thought that you could raid my hideout ey? You freakin schmucks” the Don began.
“Well youse wrong! Now you will tell us who sent you”.
G-Lag was silent for a second, his tongue sticking to the palate of his mouth. He then began to talk.
“How did you know that we were coming?”
The Don grinned. “I have my ways. You still have not answered my question though. Who sent you?”
The elf behind the Don answered. “It’s obvious isn’t it? Regulus offered them a job and they took it. They really should know better then to send runners to their doom¨. A haughty laugh escaped the mouth of the elf.
“And you” he moved forward and poked G-Lag with his gun. “You really should do better research. Fragging amateur hour here!”.
“Well that settles that then” said the Don. “Let’s waste em boys”.
Before they got the chance to waste em a magical shock wave erupted from Madame Z. The goons were knocked down to the ground, dropping their weapons. The gang wasted no time and attacked.
Sledgehammer fired his gun into the general direction of the two rival Shadowrunners behind the Don, figuring they were the biggest threat. Beck and G-Lag meanwhile kicked away the guns of the goons as much as they could while Z was preparing herself for another spell.
Some of the goons had grabbed their guns and opened fire at the street samurai. To no avail as he ran, unsheathed his katana and decapitated them in a single stroke. The masked human had taken cover behind the desk and was now slinging a toxic spell in the direction of Madame Z. She barely had enough time to counter spell it.
The window behind the Don and the masked man shattered as the same dog like drone from earlier jumped through it. The Don seeing the writing on the wall decided to take the smart option and attempted to jump over the drone and through the window. By some miracle he barely made it as he flew off.
The elf had not sat still this whole time and was taking cover behind another desk at the side of the room as he unloaded his SMG into the dog like drone. Most of the bullets bounced off the thick plating on the drone as it lunged forward, grabbing another bird like goon and tore it to shreds with his steel fangs.
“JESSE! LET’S GO!” the muffled voice of the masked man yelled from behind the desk as it became very clear to him that this fight was lost. Jesse nodded as he grabbed the body of one of the mangled goons and used it as a meat shield as he sprinted across the room to his compatriot. A single flash blinded everyone as both him and the masked man disappeared.
The remaining goons then surrendered.
---
Sledgehammer and G-Lag were tying up the remaining goons as Beck delved through the Mafia’s computers for information. She found it all. The ties between the Bird Mafia and Saeder-Krupp. The original plans for stealing the equipment and the recent logs between Don Finch and Herr Schmidt.
She copied over the files and deleted the original before sending the files directly via an encrypted channel to their fixer. Regulus would probably be very happy with this information.
Madame Z looked through the shattered window from which the finch shaped Don had fled with a worried look on her face.
“This isn’t over…” she thought to herself.
“Well that settles that” G-Lag said. “Uniforce can take care of the rest. It is time for us to get the hell out of here and collect our paycheck!”
“Hear hear!” Beck said happily. “It is probably for the best if we lay low as well. We’ve caused a bit of a ruckus”. She then addressed Sledgehammer.
“Yo Sledge! Your boyfriend still has those spare rooms right?”
A blush appeared on Sledgehammer’s face. The street samurai was less unflappable then people thought.
Sirens could be heard approaching from the distance which was the signal for the group to get the hell out of there. They sprinted down the stairs and ran away to the van before getting in and driving off.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 16.
Unknown location, Allied German States.
A man with combed back black hair is sitting in his office and staring out of the window. His stare pierces the sky as he is waiting for the results of his underlings.
The door opens and another man walks in.
“It is done” he says.
“Are they taken care off?” the first man asks.
“Yes” answers number two. “The original team has been taken from Uniforce custody and is currently being transported to Bielefeld”.
“And what about the second team?” asks the skypiercer.
“Gone off the grid. Presumably their connection to Regulus has been severed after receiving their pay”.
“Shame” answers the first man. “They would have made good assets. The Don is still lost I take it?”
“Not a sign of him” answered the second man somewhat nervously.
“Then find him!” the first man responds sternly. “You know what will happen to us if Herr Brackhaus finds out about any loose ends. We cannot let him get away”
The second man nods. “Understood sir”. He adjusts his tie a bit. “What about the files the second team took?”
The first man sighs. “It is safe to assume that at this point those files are locked in some data vault in London somewhere. We can always just claim that the person responsible was a rogue asset. It is a loss but not a big one”.
He continued. “With that said, we cannot let this happen again. I want every contact of us screened and their work triple checked. Those that do not meet our standards will get an immediate appointment with Herr Brackhaus, understood? Our beloved CEO does not tolerate failure and neither do I!”
The second man nodded again. “Very good sir”.
As he walked out of the office again the first man resumes his sky gazing. “Well played Regulus..” he says. “Well played…”