Session started at 6:47 pm on 12/19/2006
Attending players: Michael, Ben, Sarah, and Eva
Presiding GM: Aaron
("Mr. Davenport, what turns you on?... and don't say long walks on the beach."
~ Aaron, asking about pizza for dinner in a strange way
"Very... short... walks?"
~ Ben)("Yes, puppy flavored dip sauce! It's bark-ably good!"
~ Michael, when Aaron won't stop asking about pizza condiments)It looks like extraction isn't coming though. We head inland to avoid the Coast Guard patrols which are pushing further out from the harbor. The chatter on emergency bands suggests that someone might have seen us. We're about 5 klicks from the hotel and a hell of a long way from out of the woods.
Not to far inland we come across a street, so maybe this won't be so bad.... Spoke too soon. The others hear Thunderbirds coming this way. Joy.
As we head across the street for cover in a nearby building two Thunderbirds pop over the trees and close in on the knoll we were standing only minutes ago. We head into a coffee shop and try to be uninteresting. Through the plate glass windows we can see bunches of forces, including some Ares, swarming the shore across the street.
Ajax tells every one to put their commlinks in super-nubie, I-have-nothing-to-hide mode. We have 30 NY corporate crap sandwiches and try desperately not to look twitchy. Ajax and the doctor spot a mage across the road and a group of security goons heading towards the coffee shop. Ajax stays at the table and the others of us take a bathroom break.
("Fifty to one we have to rescue Ajax again."
~ Sarah)("Ben, isn't your character the one who fell off the building?"
~ Eva
"the boat."
~ Sarah
"Yea, the boat"
~ Eva
"Yes."
~ Ben
"So you're the only one who's soaking wet?"
~ Eva
"I'm in the bathroom under the hand dryer"
~ Ben
"I would give anything to see an ork crouched under and hand dryer."
~ Sarah, laughing)The bathroom has a small window high in the back wall. I hope to God we don't have to use it. I could probably squeeze out but I don't think I could get the doctor out without some serious unpleasantness. It might just be easier to knock a hole in the wall if it comes to that.
(Unbenounced to Lume, Ajax is talking to some of the guards who are looking around. They are looking for us. He is trying to bluff them with a story about us working upstairs and taking an early lunch because of the commotion along the nearby coast.)
After a few minutes, Ajax knocks on the door and we head towards one of the back exits. As I turn away from the doctor to head out the door I see her give a startled jerk and a gunshot rings out from right behind me. I whirl around, my pulse going through the roof to find that the doctor has somehow managed to not only drop her gun, but leave the safety off as well. No one was hurt, but I am about to kill her for blowing any semblance of a clean get away.
The kid bolts for the service entrance as the worker behind the counter starts screaming. I give Ajax a funny look and then yell, "There's a guy in the bathroom with a gun!" and bolt. The doctor pockets her gun and the two of them follow me in a dead run down the hall.
(Yorick has already run into security. He cons the crap out of it.)
As we round the corner towards the service entrance we come face to face with a troll security guy who's immediately waving a gun in our faces. Ajax is yelling about guys with guns behind us. The guard buys it and waves us past as he heads into the hallway. We've found the loading dock. There's a truck and two guys who appear to have been loading it. They take off out of the building when Ajax babbles something else about guys with guns.
("I forgot for a second I was a hacker."
~ Michael, as he tries to craft a plan for starting the truck, only to realize he can just 0wnz0r it)God I hope we can take the truck. It's still going to suck big time and I bet the security forces will catch us, but we sure can't stay here. The truck roars to life in no time flat. Ajax jumps in the cab and the rest of us hide in the cargo area and close it up. It's about half full of boxes of soy cakes. Yum.
There's a tense 5 minutes before Ajax gets us out of the security cordon that the Ares forces have set up around the area. They seem to buy his surly trucker act from what I can hear through the side of the truck.
("You see a puppy and a bunch of Ares security vehicles."
~ Aaron, when Michael checks on his car back at the hotel electronically)Meanwhile, Ajax is asking Nabo to babysit his car for a while and offers him the puppy. From what Ajax is saying I think Nabo just talked off some Ares punks for us. Wow. It's nice to have friends in weird places. Nabo is going to take care of the car and the puppy, so that's better than nothing. It seems unlikely he'll manage to kill the puppy anyway although I won't be surprised if the next time we see it it's some sort of NovaCoke fiend.
We park the truck somewhere inconspicuous and take a cap to a hotel somewhere in the middle of the city. The news that night is highly interesting. One of the boats we hit sunk and now the harbor is full of drowned animals and pharmaceutical grade drugs. There's also a story that Nabo has been arrested for speeding away from Ares security personal in a stolen car. The news folks seem to think that it was just a publicity stunt for his concert. Yikes, so much for Ajax's car...
Ajax has committed to going to the concert, with presents. Fun.
("We need an especially weighted capsule and an otter harness..."
~ Ben
"Yes! Twelve otters..."
~ Michael
"Note to self, arrange my own extraction and laugh from above."
~ Sarah)The concert is at a place called the Plaza of Nations. Fancy. I bet the concert will trash it big time.
The place is packed and crawling with KnightErrant security when we arrive. The disguise I knocked together for Ajax isn't very good. He's the only one that Ares has pictures of, so hopefully it will be good enough. We get in to the back stage area without issue.
(Some KnightErrant guys are looking funny at Ajax's ID but Michael rolls 10 hits for the legitamacy of the forgery.)
Jagger lets us in and points us towards some seats. We pass the guy who interviewed Ajax at the coffee shop. Nabo apparently gave him backstage passes to keep him from looking to closely at the hotel or Ajax's car. Fortunately he doesn't seem to recognize Ajax.
Jagger comes over to talk to us. Apparently the car is impounded and they've named the puppy Shadow. Cute. Ajax is asking about a vehicle we can use to but they've apparently only got the tour busses. The next tour stop is in Winnipeg. We are definitely not desperate enough to try to hitch a ride with them. Jagger mentions that Ajax's car is being auctioned off. Fun.
Ajax wants to boost a car and try to get back across the boarder before the concert ends. We wait until Nabo's first song and head out to the massive sea of cars outside. Ajax hacks a decent economy model near the edge of the parking lot. Its a good thing there are no Trolls on our team.
We make it across the boarder without incident, catch an auto-cab at the edge of Seattle, send the car back up north, and get a good night's rest at a safe house. There are far fewer hitches than I would have expected. Appreciate what you can get I suppose.
We pick up dezzy the next day. He's looking good in a nice navy color. He's a bit sad that the puppy is gone, but I explain that it made other friends and it's living with them now.
End of Session