-----Ah, Chicago, the windy city. The place where three years ago, the insect spirits tore up civilization and claimed the place as its own. The Containment Zone around Chicago is gone now, but once it was a veritable gold mine for Shadowrunners. This is the recollection of just one of those runs.-----
--Archiver {14:45:57/05-30-59}
The Runners: Tomo Kyusen, Jaichim Carridan, Peter Pan, Edge, Claw Man
The Job: Infiltrate Bug City and extract Dr. Edward Odin and his research from the Ares HQ in the Core district of Chicago. Due to the delicate nature of the run and high chance of death, the group agreed to the payment of three million nuyen to the group.
The runners are all individually contacted by various sources that there is a job that needs only the best, novahot people to make a special shadowrun for a big league player. Each runner decides that they'd like to see what kind of money the johnson has to offer, so they all show up at the appointed place, a for lease office building in the Tacoma Metroplex. After being ecorted in by two men who have that I'm-listening-to-a-radio-in-my-head look on their faces, they find themselves around a large real wood desk. After a few minutes, a tall black woman with white hair and broad shoulders enters the room, introducing herself as Mrs. Johnson. The pleasantries end as she gives the runners her pitch.
Here's the deal. My affiliation has for years been on the forefront edge of its business. We represent a huge portion of the industry. But we will always have competition. That is what brings us here today. We have need of certain equipment that we don't have access to. Without it, my affiliation will become the "second best". This cannot be allowed to happen. To retrieve this equipment, and its developer, I will need your services. But before you answer, I must tell you this. I do not expect all of you to live. But those of you who do, will have three million nuyen to split beteen the survivors.
Ka-ching! The runners wallets grumble. Edge thinks of the magical goodies she could swing with that kind of nuyen. Jaichim wonders if he could use the money to grease the wheels of those who knew him from before his awakening in an alley. Peter Pan wonders what kinds of explosives and motorcycles are available to a millionaire. Claw Man already knows how much vodka costs, but decides he could use the extra cash. Tomo thinks about how much time he could dedicate towards peace and quiet with thatkind of cash. Everyone agrees.
"Great," says Mrs. Johnson, "Your flight leaves in three hours. There'll be a three hour layover in Denver on your way to Chicago."
"Uh, where?" says Peter Pan.
"Bug City," says the Johnson, "Leave anything illegal or semi-legal with us for safe transport to Chicago. We'll see you there in ten hours.
Sure enough, three hours later, the runners are on a commercial flight to Bug City. Their layover period though, becomes bizzare. While waiting around at the kaf bar in the airport in Denver, Jaichim notices that he is being shadowed. A tall man in a brown longcoat has been following him around. Jaichiom dodges down a blind hallway, and enters into a small storage area (made even more restrictive than usual since Jaichim is large even for a troll)and waits for his shadow to appear. He isn't dissapointed when the man enters into the room. Jaichim grabs him by the arms and slams him agaist the wall. Cleaning supplies fly about the room.
"Who are you?" Jaichim growls, "Why are you following me?"
"Slotting drek!" the man yells, "You really are alive! We thought they greased you!"
"Who... what are you talking about? Who are they?"
"C'mon, you don't remember?"
"I'm asking the questions half-wit."
"Let me go and I'll tell you. I don't want to hurt you. I'm on your side. Just let go of me."
Jaichim grumbles and reluctantly agrees. The man pulls himself together and relaxes before taking up the old posture of paranoia.
"Are you OK? says the man. "You really don't remember me? Did you hit your head or something?"
"Funny you should mention that," Jaichim says pulling back a huge flop of hair, revealing a huge scar where he obviously was injured severely.
"Drek, forget I asked that," says the man, "If you don't remember, then I can't fill you in here. They could be watching."
"Who the frag is they?" Jaichim says for the third time.
"Look, all you need to know right now is that I'm Shadow and I'm your friend. Me and the others been lookin' all over for you and so have the Big Eight. We thought they got you. What you gotta do is keep low. Try not to snoop around in your past for a while." The man goes to walk away.
"Wait," says Jaichim, grabbing the man again, "At least tell my slotting name."
"We called you 'Jai'," says shadow. "Meet me in three days. You'll remember."
With that, Shadow disappears and Jaichim is left with more questions than answers. The rest of the layover goes by quickly, and within a few more hours the runners are standing outside of the Chicago Airport where they are taken to a large warehouse. No distinguishing marks, signs of ownership or personell outside. Just a magkey swipe card port and a metal door. They find that the door opens as they approach and they enter what looks like a reception area. A blonde biff sits behind a desk and asks if the runners have an appointment. They say that they're here to meet Mrs. Johnson, and they are given admittance into the warehouse proper, where they realize they have entered a techno geek heaven. Neat goodies are sprawled everywhere. Guns, grenades, chemsuits, decks, wires, computers, cybernetic equipment and suites. Whgile they're busy looking at all the lab technichans tending to the stuff, Mrs. Johnson arrives to give the skinny to the team.
All right fellas, here's the deal. We need you to break into the containment zone and infiltrate the former Ares Headquarters to access our vaults on the 97th floor. In those vaults are a series of prototype chips that have been denied us ever since the zone went up. The emergency power should be functional, and our intelligence shows that the building has most likely been compromised by insect spirits. You should be able to get to the 50th floor with no problems, but the upper half of the 130 floor tower may be withour total power. Elevators may not run, so be prepared to walk up a lot of stairs.
But, in order to get through vault security, you'll need to find one of our scientists trapped in side the zone first. His name is Dr. Edward Odin. He is a tall, african-american human. you'll find information on him with this. She hands the group a small pocket computer, containing bios on Edwards, intelligence reports of the zone, and five other dossiers.
Who are these other people?" Tomo asks.
Those are other members of Odin's team and staff. For each one you bring back alive and over the wall, you will recieve 100,000 nuyen extra. If they are infected by buy spirits, kill them and bring us back proof of the find. They are merely secondary objectives. Enough talk about that though, we have lots of reports to go over.
From there, Mrs. J. gives them all they know about the zone. Where to go and where not to. She also gives them the locations of two warring factions that Odin is likely to be found. One is close to the center of the zone, and the other is towards the northwest end of the zone. Their insertion point and drop via VTOL, disguised as a Counterforce Team, will be between the two points so that they can follow whichever route seems applicable. She soon has equipment brought to the runers that she says they will need. Each runner recieves a duffle bag containing: Two packs of cigarettes, a biotech/first aid kit, three colored flares, shortwave radio signal with clearance passcodes, and a personal Tacticom-Philips communicator. She asks what else they might need.
Tomo requests nothing more than a bit of rope. Jaichim asks for a lot of rope, a grapple-gun, ten feet of nano-wire, and a bunch of real coffee. Mrs. J. gives him everything but coffee, scoffing at the last bit. She says she may have a high clearance in her corp, but not that strong.
Peter asks for nothing, nor does Edge. Claw Man asks when the frag they get out of there. At this Mrs. Johnson gives the runners one final piece of equipment. A box is wheeled out to the runners and when opened, turns out to be three items. There are three dull metal cannisters inside with the words "EXP-B-BOMB" on the side of each in stenciled letters.
"In the case of infestation or desperation, use these. We have yet to see their response in a hostile spirit environment," she says.
"What's it do? Distract the spirit? Bombs don't work on bugs do they?" Edge says, scoffing at the idea of a so called "Bug Bomb"
"Just use it if there's trouble," she says. "You have ten minutes to get into these," she says, throwing each runner a U.C.A.S. Military Counterforce Team Uniform. you'll be flying in undercover. The U.C.A.S. won't let our corp, or anyother for that matter, get in. When you get inside, it may be a good idea not to keep them on. The natives tend to distrust the people who shoot at them when they try to escape." The runners agree and soon find themselves in a helo-plane with U.C.A.S. markings and urban paint scheme.
Remember, when you approach the wall to activate the transmitters we gave you twenty feet away from the wall. If you step within fifteen feet of it, the guards are authorized to use terminal force on any person approaching the wall," she screams over the loud engines of the VTOL. "Good luck! you have 48 hours to get back! If you're not out by then, you're stuck. Make sure those chips get back. They're useless in two days."
With that, the counterfit U.C.A.S. VTOL takes off, and begins its flight into the madness of the Chicago Containment Zone.
