Slow Boat From China
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Slow Boat From China
Back to Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Real Date: 28th January 2006
Game Date: TBA
Venue: Stuarts
Prelude
John drew back his focus from the street outside the taxi, looking at the AR Os that only he could see broadcast from his PAN. At the top left of his vision, his clock, counting down to his departure time, and in the middle of his field of view, reviewing his tickets once more. He'd had a nice relaxing holiday for once. No unexpected excitement on his outbound journey, nor once he arrived, and now his trip was all but over. Just the short cruise home to go. Sure, it'd be faster to take the sub-orbital, but the last time he visited an airport he ended up nearly killed fighting terrorist plane-hijackers. Cruise liners were absolutely the way to go - slow, boring, and not interesting enough for anyone to try and hijack.
Cast of Players
slacker gets call from sammy slacker calls eclipse eclipse calls tno and JD slacker calls bane
Events by TNO
thump thump thump
With my hands pressed on either side of my head, I try to keep the loud aching sounds from penetrating my skull.
thump thump thump
Teeth gritted, almost growling with anger, the sound just won't stop. If it was the neighbours, I could just go round and ram my katana through their faces, and shut them up. But I can't! The noise isn't just tearing my head apart, it's coming from INSIDE my head.
buzz buzz buzz
The sound changes pitch, and I almost scream before I realise it's my commlink trilling away on my bedside table. I snatch it up and smack the 'talk' button. It's Eclipse, inviting me out on a new job from Sammy. I agree to be in on it, even though the meeting is at the Peoni Palace. Eclipse asures me she's checked the Johnson out, and he's clean.
I get to the Peoni Palace, and Sammy tells us the job is for some Red Dragon guy, who needs some out-of-town work done for him. I spot Dan Dan Sung at another table, and subtly point him out to Bane - Bane catches my drift, he hasn't forgotten about the 2K price I've put on Dan Dan's head.
Dan Dan Sung has the nerve to swagger over to our table - not that I'm surprised, he's that kinda guy - the sort that thinks everyone wants to drool over them. I see a crazed look glint in Bane's eye, I see his hand twitching. The Dan Dan walks off, never realising how close Bane came to wasting him. But I know, and it gives me a special smile.
One of the 'ladies' that works here comes over, she leads us to the 'purple room' where our Johnson is waiting. He's a tall, thin man, with short black spiky hair. He introduces himself as Eddie Wong. he seems like a nice guy, maybe I'm just taken in by the well-tailored suit. He tells us that the red Dragons were impressed at how we handled the whole Jackie Chan Red Dragon deal, and they think we're the guys for the job they have. It's flattering... I like the guy some more.
There's this ferry, The Pride Of Nagasaki, that's leaving in a few days on a two day cruise to Nagasaki, and on that ferry there's going to be a van. In this van, there's going to be a safe with a necklace in, a necklace worth half a million nuyen. I'm not sure there's a single one of us not wanting to drool, and I can tell Slacker's interested. Even though he's only in the room via AR, I can see his eyes wide and hungry, I can almost smell his putrid eagerness.
The van belongs to Sandra Lu - a 1-hit wonder pop-star who's only slightly less fabulously rich after her debut single than before. She's heading to Japan to negotiate the starring role in some film. Eclipse takes over negotiations, and scores us a 35k payout with 7k upfront. The keys to the van will be held by her driver/bodyguard called Arak Sung, and we need to do the job by midnight on the first night. We accept, then head to Sisko's to plan. Our plan is, roughly, that Eclipse and I will get the jeys from the driver, and Bane, JD, and Slacker will steal the necklace.
Slacker
<hacking the shipping company - 1st time fails, 2nd time succeeds>
TNO
The next day, we all meet up again, and Slacker is all full of himself, swaggering about hacking into the shipping company and upgrading some of our tickets to 1st class. He's done his own ticket, and Eclipse's and mine too. While he's deluded about himself, he can tell Eclipse and I are cut out for better stuff.
I'm still not feeling great, I sneeze now and then, and I make sure I aim one at Slacker to let him know just how little I think he's worth. I think he and Bane must be germ freaks, as they both start acting very freaky around me, shining lights in my eyes, and asking if I feel well. maybe they fancy themselves as doctors, Bane sure does seem to medicate often enough.
I decide to ignore them, and I drag Eclipse out shopping with me, between us we spend about 12k, and it almost feels like old times, out shopping with my friends.
We spend the evening out wining and dining, then the next day we head out to catch our cruise. It's not hard to spot Sandra as Eclipse and I enter first class, she's the one drawing all the attention, can't miss her. It's also not hard to miss the swanky guy and beefy bodyguard with her, and the fourth member of their retinue, Jaina Jansen. I have to turn away quickly, not wanting her to notice me. I wonder if this is going to be an added complication to the run. I observe a little more subtly, and get a better look of the swanky guy, turns out he's Charles Worthington III - a guy who runs Capricorn One.
While I initially try to avoid Jaina, Eclipse and I finally decide she's our way in, and I go on over to chat with her, pretending I work for Eclipse. I say Eclipse is a rich girl who wants to buy her way into showbusiness, and Jaina invites us both to dine that evening with her group. Eclipse acts fast, and has already given Sandra's bodyguard several looks, and started chatting him up. While hanging around the bar, I recognise the barman. I have to take several looks, he's too familiar. Finally I figure out where I recognise him from. He has almost the exact same face as the guy in the picture I keep showing around. He looks like my dad!
He's way too young, he isn't him... but surely he has to be related to him. Eclipse is around, and I don't want to approach him now, but I make a note to find time later and come chat to him. I check the crew manifest Slacker obtained for us, he's called Tom Atherton.
???
JD, Bane, Slacker spot guy they think is cop - he's John Kyama JD also spots 2 shifty guys, he overhears a conversation and he reckons they're drug dealers
TNO
We have dinner, Sandra's acting like a total bitch. Loud, obnoxious, and getting totally drunk - I reckon this is probably what Slacker's like when he's had too much to drink. She heads off, wobbling back to her cabin I guess, not that I cared. Her bodyguard stays behind, and as the group dissipates, Eclipse gravitates towards him, and before long she's all over him, hands roaming here and there. She's after his keys, but he thinks she's after something else.
Eclipse finally plams me the keys as she and the guy she's wrapped around swing past on the dance floor, and I leave first class and head down to meet the others - making sure t change into my jumpsuit first. I hand over the key and the fake replacement, and wait for them to get back to me with the necklace.
Bane/Slacker??
JD & Bane go to get necklace while slacker observes from cameras slacker sees suspicious guy - no one investigates
TNO
Everything seems to go without a hitch, the guys head back to the cabin, and hand over the necklace. I put it on, just to see how it looks, and I reckon it suits me. Having no better place to hide it, I keep it on, under the jumpsuit, and chat with Bane and JD about stuff when Slacker's suddenly gibbering over the comm about a Japanese Imperial Navy frigate pulling alongside to do a customs inspection.
We all have a bit of a panic, but then realise that they must be after drugs or something, and can't be here for the necklace, so we calm down. Then not long after we lose comms with Slacker, but he's back broadcasting on our PA Ns about the server being suddenly taken offline - and then we start to panic again. From the sound of things, these navy guys are rounding up the passengers... and we stat suspecting that we're in the middle of a hijacking.
??
JD meets John John saves Eclipse
TNO
Bane and I get rounded up by some goons, but Bane is waving his arms around, complaining and distracting, and I manage to sneak away still wearing the necklace. I don't know what's going to happen to him, but it feels like he's sacrificed himself for me, I really owe him. I make my way to the weapons locker and bump into Eclipse, JD, and some guy, who it turns out is a cop. This guy is a little freaked out that the three of us seem to pass the weapons around, quite professionally, he keeps asking who we are.
We can't communicate at all with Slacker or Bane, there's a jammer active somewhere jamming comms and PAN traffic. So we make a quick plan to go up to the bridge and see what's going on. When we get there, JD spots and deactivates the jammer before we can get into position, the hijackers all get alerted to comm systems being activated, and lead starts flying on the bridge. Fortunately we all make it out of there alive, but we have to flee as more goons are heading up.
Bane / Slacker
In ball room with passengers and goons hijackers talk to Charles Worthington - he hired them to steal necklace, they spotted it was fake he reveals us and our identities he ends up getting shot
TNO
Over the inter-com, the leader of the hijackers demands to meet up with whoever is running around the ship being bothersome. That's us I guess. He says there's a bomb on the ship, and if we want to live we better start dealing. We briefly discuss options, and decide to have JD go up to the sattelite uplink, repair it, and send an SOS, while I take the explosive device these guys planted on this ship, and attach it to theirs, to give us time John and Eclipse go to meet up with him, preparing a home made alcohol/perfume/flash-bang bomb.
We split up, and I rappel down the side of the ship with ease that astonishes even myself - my new magic boost to my agility seems to really be awesome. When JD meets me back on the ship, we suddenly get jumped by some Phys Ad guy and a pair of wolves. JD and the Phys Ad trade blows, with JD finally winning. One wolf keeps leaping at me, trying to savage me, I manage to keep dodging, while the other stays back and seems to be casting magic at me. I level my shotgun on them both and keep shooting. I can't hit the one closest to me, but the other gets blown to pieces, at which the other one just vanishes into thin air.
Bane / Slacker
goons in ball room bunch up - bane magics them, kills 7, 1 left, turned to goo enemies depart, their ship goes boom real navy turn up Captain of ship says to all witnesses that is best to keep us anonymous, John takes all credit
TNO
We get to Japan at last, but as Charles Worthington was the guy who was going to pay us, we're seemingly screwed on the deal. I ring Jaina, she's now in charge of the business, I say we want to trade back the gem, and she says she can give us 40k she found siphoned off in a special fund that Charles must have prepared for this operation. So all in all we get 47k to split between us, plus first class tickets back to Hong Kong.
It's on the return trip that I spot Tom Atherton again, and with less mayhem going down, I get time to talk to him. He reveals that his dad was a sailor, a guy he'd never met. But he tracked him down only to find he'd died three years ago. he'd had a heart attack, only to have his life support machines turned off by someone who never got caught for it. He tells me this man had a family.. the Lu family. He gives me his number if I ever want to ask him any other questions about this.
Some time later, Eclipse comes up to me. She's been chattiing to him, god knows about what, and he must have told her I had been speaking to him. She asks why I was interested in the topic. I dissemble, lie about it being something I was hired to do. She wants to ask more, but doesn't seem able to. So we go out for dinner, party a bit at afew nightclubs, and head to our respective homes to sleep off hangovers.
