The Sprawl, Team Neon #3 Play Report

A one-shot play report for The Sprawl designed by Hamish Cameron.  This was re-devised by Sue for a bunch of Neon-ne'er-do-wells.  Team Chrome morph into Team Neon.

Technically we ran this on Roll20, using the excellent The Sprawl character sheets for tracking stats and rolling die and various customised clocks to check mission progress and relationships with Corps.  Discord was used for both voice and video.

...Here Be Spoilers (and a slight amount of artistic licence)...

It is time to head to The Oil Slick, ...

...Ivan has had a buzz from Burn, to meet her, along with Badger, at the aforementioned biker bar.  There is talk of a new job and two new compadres, Bobby Nix, some kind of tech operative and a driver with a reputation, Gear.

Ivan arrives, in his 80s imitation suit and singles to the bar as he strides to the back, "A milk... over here."  The bartender, large, grizzled, tattooed and with random chrome piercings frowns back at him.

He enters the booth, there is a red-haired woman in red leathers who introduces herself as Burn and a kid dressed in leathers, sucking on a Coke through a straw, the straw disappears into his helmet.  The kid mumbles something at Ivan, he only catches the word Gear, the kid is now blowing bubbles through the straw into his coke bottle.

The Oil Slick

As they start to talk they notice two more of the party looking around, one of the pair is Badger, Ivan has worked with her before and trusts her, he calls her over, she's a military tactician, she's the one with the plan.  The other person looks like your typical tech fixer, he's clutching a holdall to his chest and looking around the bar, he turns when Ivan calls out and trips over a chair, apologises and makes his way to the private booth.

"Okay, enough clowning.", says Red.  She continues, "Dr Singh, a street doctor contacted me saying he needs a team, he recommended Ivan and Badger personally."  Ivan and Badger have recently been patched up by Dr Singh, they somewhat trust him.  Ivan lost an eye under the Doctor's surgery but he's come through with some replacement cybernetics.  The cyberware is not of the highest quality, the blinding headaches aside, it does give some limited light amplification, magnification and thermal imaging.

Red outlines the mission, Dr Kaye Austin, another street doctor and friend of Singh has gone missing, kidnapped from her office.  The mission is simple, find out where Austin is and return her.  There is a rumour it's a big corp behind it, Sherman Splicing, so any intel on a series of workplace incidents will pay extra, Red can finder a good buyer for this data.

Sherman Splicing

"Heh, heh... Chaos Din.", mumbles Gear.  The group look at him, he puts his head down noisily slurping on the last droplets of Coke.

Gear

The group decide to visit Dr Singh first, Ivan and Bobby take the bus.  Bobby is chatty, pointing out to Ivan the various cable points he's laid in the city as they make their slow journey.  Bobby whispers to Ivan, "I smell cabbage."  Ivan points, there is a small, sweaty man across from them, he has various boils on his face and snot runs out of his nose and down to his lip, he flicks a tongue at it every few minutes.  Bobby looks horrified, there is a loud rasping sound from the man as he shifts his buttocks, the stench of a thousand graves drifts across to the pair.  Ivan reaches into his pocket to insert a military grade gas filter into his nose.  Bobby begins to dry retch as Ivan hands him a carrier bag.

Bobby Nix

Gear is showing off Suzie Q to Badger, they are still outside the biker bar, "This modification, will smooth out the ride, even up to 300 KM/H.  It's designed against all central government traffic calming features, at least to spec grade iii-11-023b."  

Suzie Q

Badger suggests they get on it and get to Dr Singh.  As the bike accelerates to nearly 100 KM/H in just over two seconds, Badger immediately regrets her choice, her fingers grip the back of the bike as she feels the G forces rip into her face.  The bike goes nearly horizontal as it speeds around a corner and on to the main Trans-Route.

Badger and Gear are waiting patiently in Dr Singh's office.  The doctor offers them coffee, then sugar, then turmeric, then some more sugar to disguise the turmeric followed by some synth-ghee to bulk up the watery coffee.  Gear looks fascinated by his coffee, especially the way the spoon stands bolt upright in the cup.  

Coffee, Singh style

Gear wants a straw and some ice cubes for his coffee but the only ice cubes are keeping a donor's kidney's cool.  He passes on this, just as Bobby and Ivan enter the Doctor's office, "Shut up about the Cabbage!", says a clearly irate Ivan.  

Everyone is now seated, Gear asks for the lowdown from Singh;

Dr Austin was taken from her office, in the basement of the shopping mall, just after dawn.  CCTV cameras spotted a van in the underground parking lot.  This was two days ago.  Her phone's GPS signal was cut off when she was placed in the van, some kind of advanced blocking tech.

The Doctor flips over the CCTV footage, there is a clear view of the kidnapper and Austin.  Badger analyses the film, seeing the van is painted a non-descript white, but in certain light there is lettering underneath.  Enhancing the van paintwork it is clear, the lettering spells out Sherman Splicing.  The assailants are dressed in black overalls, that looks to have been distressed or spoiled, they are clearly brand new.  Finally, we capture some brief audio from one of the kidnappers, "We'll soon have her behaving."

Leaving Dr Singh's Bobby and Ivan head to a contact of Bobby's, Big Johnny Dee.  They are in Dee's gymnasium, Bobby is asking Johnny about recent sales of GPS suppression tech.  In the background, Dee sees Ivan, practising various obscure and violent martial arts moves.

Dee loosens his collar and pipes up, "Seemed routine, but yeah, big corp wanted E-Splatz, not yet on the market, but will cut out targetted GPS signals in seconds.  Super cool."

E-Splatz

There is a crash, Ivan has sent a pot plant flying across the room, smashing against a wall with a karate kick.  Dee looks pale, "We handed it over at this abandoned farm, here, let me write the address."

Badger then links through to Ivan, "We have the van registration from the CCTV processing, here..."

Back in the Gym parking lot, Bobby is in his van and starts to put together some traffic analysis to trace the Sherman Splicing van.  The first step, he hacks into the municipal government server farm.  ICE is triggered as he clumsily breaks into the main system layer.  Ivan glares at him, "Have you done this before?  Jesus!  I thought Bang was bad."

A military styled Traffic Warden stomps down a virtualised corridor towards Bobby.  Bobby tries to shut down the ICE but his apprentice scheme hasn't really prepared him for this and he instead sends a series of identification protocols, the Metro security defence starts to break down the encryption to identify him.  

Government Issued ICE

Bobby tries to stay ahead of the avatar and heads off in search of the CCTV records he needs, eventually he has a bunch of data and cleanly logs out.  "Nice work Dixie, seems like you excel in running away.  Let's see what you got?", shoots Ivan as Bobby removes his goggles.

Bobby has finished putting together the route of the Sherman Splicing van and shares it with the group.  The van went first to the abandoned farm, picking up the GPS suppressor from Johnny.  Next, it went back into town, kidnapped Austin and returned to the farm, but went straight past it.  The next stop was a Sherman Splicing greenhouse a few miles further.

Sherman Splicing Greenhouse

Badger and Ivan are hunkered down in their bivis observing the Sherman Splicing Greenhouse, they've been here for twelve hours.  Badger has concluded that the optimum entry point is either the staff entrance, which has low security or the loading bay if they could commandeer a van;

• Vans from MaxChem and Hermoor Logistics have been coming and going from the greenhouse, so a possible cover there.  
• The staff all wear overalls, green and dirty with the grey logo of Sherman Splicing, again, should be easy to copy. 
• Danger levels look low, several guards in the loading bay and a single guard on duty at the staff entrance.  
• There is a brick building inside the greenhouse, must be where they are keeping Austin.

Catching back up with the group after 24 hours out in the wilds, Badger and Ivan meet with Gear and Bobby to devise a plan:

• The team will intercept a MaxChem van by staking out the road from the abandoned farmhouse
• The team will leave Bobby's tech van and Suzie Q at the farmhouse for the getaway
• Disguised as MaxChem staff, they will enter the Greenhouse by the loading bay
• Their cover story, pipe maintenance and possible leak of dangerous chems
• Inside the Greenhouse, they will freestyle, find Austin, escape in the MaxChem van and rendezvous back at the farmhouse

Inside the farmhouse, most of the group are still discuss the finer details of the plan, they hear a screech from the road.  They look out of a broken window and spot Bobby lying in the road, a MaxChem van has stopped in front of him.  As the driver and his companion get out clouds of gas explode from under Bobby and the MaxChem staff choke and fall to the floor.  Bobby sits up, gas mask in place and gives the thumbs up to the watching group.

The team are now in the MaxChem van dressed in the companies uniform.  They drive up to the loading bay of the Sherman Splicing Greenhouse.  Badger leans out of the window, explaining to the guard the seriousness of the Deactivator leaks that they have come to fix.  The guard nods, he's aware of the incidents and issues them with passes.

The team load a trolley with fertilizer bags and various MaxChem tools, encased within the fertilizer bags are a selection of hi-grade weapons.

Bobby is walking as he explains in detail to the guard the seriousness of the pipeline leaks and what these chemicals could do if they leak into the air.  The guard nods, looking worried, when there is a scream from down one of the aisle's, they look and see a woman clutching her face, shouting, "My eye, Jesus Christ!".  Another person runs up, shouting, "It's those damn Deactivator's, it's hit someone in the face again.  Get her to the doctor."

The guard rushes ahead, giving Bobby some time to take a plant sample, having seen a deactivator pump chemicals into the woman's eye, he takes precautions.  Bobby carefully runs his scanner over the Sherman Splicing Deactivator but, as he does this, a part of the equipment falls off and onto a plant.  The Deactivator swings around, spraying chemicals into Bobby's face, he screams. 

Bobby is whimpering in the lift, but they are within the walled building.  Alongside him are a guard and another staff member also clutching her eye and trying to control her breathing.  Ivan leans in close to Bobby, whispering, "Great plan, will take us into the heart of the complex and hopefully Dr Austin.  Well played mate."  Bobby nods and tries to smile, blood and melting, vitreous jelly dribble between his fingers and down his cheek, Ivan pats him on the back, explaining that Dr Singh will sort him out with a new one.

Cyber Eye

They enter a lift that goes down three floors, the complex below the greenhouse is large.  They step out of the lift and are led quickly to a medical office, inside is Dr Austin.  As they wait to be processed, Gear borrows a security card from the guard, he heads to the toilet, he has an idea to copy the card and allow them all a swift and silent exit.

As Gear comes back into the Doctor's office, he sees blood up the wall and the guard in pieces on the floor.  Ivan stands over him with his meat cleaver, he turns around on hearing the door and Gear is staring into two small pistols as the cleaver clatters to the floor.  

Badger is trying to calm down the doctor, as the pair of them try and wrap more bandages around the other staff member with the injured eye.  Bobby is sitting hunched on the floor shaking and crying but at least has a bandage over one eye.

Ivan and Gear drop the various sections of security guard into the medical incinerator at the far end of the office.  Bobby has been coaxed up from the floor and is inspecting the Doctor, she has warned them of medical procedures she has had performed on her.  They try and reassure her, explaining their plan to break her out of the building and get her to Singh.

Bobby sees some complex neurosurgery within Austin.  Using one of his customised scanners, he observes there are a number of deadly toxin sacs integrated into her main spinal nerve cord.   Bobby increases the intensity of the scanner and hears a pop, he now sees a transmitter in Austin's neck start to signal.   Bobby turns to the group, "I think I've set off a timer, we need to get her to Dr Singh... probably now is a good time."

As the group prepares to leave, they hear a booming voice from outside, "Nice of you all to fall into our trap!  Now just step outside with your arms up, otherwise, things will get messy for you."

Bobby breaks into the security camera network and gets his eyes on the corridor.  Bobby is looking at a  gigantic, clearly augmented humanoid who is blocking the corridor, he seems to be alone.  As Bobby looks at him, he sees two large blades spring out from the ends of his arms, he whirls them backwards and forwards in front of himself before they are retracted.  There is armour plating covering every inch of the warrior's bulk.

Augmented Warrior Class

The team try to secure the room they are in, finding a series of locations to provide cover.  Bobby gets his customiser out, he utilises some of the fertilizer, liquefies it and builds it into a pump-action spray gun.  Bobby turns to the group, holding up the makeshift weapon, "This should start to weaken the bonds within the dermal plating if we can get close enough to spray it."  Badger hands out weapons, keeping a sleek armour piercing snub gun for herself.

Standing on either side of the door are Gear and Ivan.  Bobby is in front of the door and Badger behind Bobby.  They open the door and Bobby extends his arm and fires his weapon at the hulking figure in front of them, a spurt of yellow liquid backfires, dousing Bobby.  The soldier before them swings one of his slab-like arms and there is swish and squelch as one of Bobby's arms drops to the floor, he lets out a scream and collapses.

Cyber Arms

Gear drops to the floor and slides under the soldier he fires up into his groin.  This is not welcomed and the figure below him stamps down on Gear, there is a crunch as the foot connects with Gear's helmet but he is largely unscathed.

Ivan whirls around and fires at point-blank into the face of the augmented force, cybernetic eyes explode and smoke drifts up.  Ivan hears "Duck!" and crouches down.  Badger's armour piercing round hits the chest of the man, exploding and throwing him back against the wall opposite the door, he doesn't move.

The team pick up Bobby and put him on a gurney, Dr. Austin gets a box of ice, picks up Bobby's arm puts it in the icebox and puts the icebox and arm on top of Bobby.

The group make a quick return through the complex to the lift and manage to wave staff out of the way as they head back through the Greenhouse to the loading bay.  Badger in her excitement tries to blurt out a barely believable story about their escape from terrorists, but the two security guards in the loading bay pull their weapons.  Ivan gets off two shots, two smoking holes appear in the foreheads of the security guards as they collapse to the floor.

Gear kicks the van into reverse and they are soon back at the farmhouse.  Gear swaps to his bike, getting the Doctor to come with him, "I will get her back to Dr Singh's.  Get Bobby there too but try and get any of my tails to follow you, then lose them.", says Gear before roaring out of the barn with Dr Austin clinging on for dear life.

An AV is seen taking off from the Greenhouse, so Bobby's tech van is used as a decoy, with Bobby driving, Badger and Ivan operate the things that Bobby has trouble with - steering wheel, gear shift, mirrors.

A high-speed chase ensues, the majority of Sherman Splicing tail the tech van, a few heads after Gear but a combination of great skill and immense luck sees both groups make it back to Dr Singh undetected.

Hot pursuit

Dr Singh thanks the group for the safe return of Dr Austin he is able to remove the toxin sacs before moving on to Bobby.  Bobby has some basic meat work performed on him by Singh, unfortunately, cyberware will have to wait until Bobby has a few more credits.

Meeting back in the bar with Red they are paid well.  Red seems oblivious to the set-up from Sherman Splicing, but it is clear the teams' cards are now marked, this corporation will not be stepping down the chase - either they go on the run or strike back.