Episode One: Ill-Gotten Gains
Content Warning:
Violence, Murder, Theft, Fugitives, Language.
Quantum
Ok, so Ditch and Happy have taken up position in the claustrophobic alleyway that runs alongside Club Synapse. It's a franchise, scattered across the city in various locations, so you never know what you're going to get. Except skeezy. It's usually skeezy. This particular location is run by a fat man with a fondness for firearms. It's risky setting up here but it’s between gang territory and as long as we don't fuck around with the club, the fat man won't make us find out why he likes shotguns so much.
Scratch
Ditch thinks if the fat man starts hassling us, we can offer him a cut, but is glad we haven't had to yet.
Ditch always takes point, to get in close while Trigger holds them up
Quantum
There's a car lot on the other side of the alley, with the showroom and office building's back facing the alleyway. Large green dumpsters are staggered down the length of the alley, which runs the length of the block to major avenues on either side.
The Dust is thick down here, some kind of pollution side effect of the various factories nearby. Most folks are wearing masks. An automated street sweeper bot passes the alley on the street by the club. When the noise of its passing dies down, Happy looks over at Ditch and says, "You're sure the guy comes this way every night?"
Scratch
"I've seen him come by three times so far. Him not doing it tonight would be weird."
"And he got new shoes after the first time, so whatever he's doing gets him paid."
Quantum
Happy nods, a little nervous. Happy's always a little jumpy though.
Scratch
That's why Ditch is on point. He settles his eyes on the horizon from his spot, where he can see but not be seen.
Quantum
"If we have to run, I say we head west on Broad. The Sushi Daddies control that area but they're a joke, only a few of them and no one wants factory ground anyway. The Cannibal Cult is way worse and they have a boatload of guys." Happy shudders at the thought.
Scratch
Ditch nods. "Yeah, that's the safest way. You scout it out earlier?"
Quantum
"Yeah, most of those dipshits are hanging out in the warehouse on Johnson. If we cut across the other way, we shouldn't come across nobody."
Scratch
Ditch's eyes sharpen, he senses something.
Quantum
Ditch sees the guy come out of the side entrance into the alley. He's got on new kicks alright. And new bling around his neck. Oughta be worth a few bits. He's slightly older than Ditch and Happy, maybe in his 30s. He takes off the apron he's wearing and tosses it down on the silver barrel trashcan next to the door. He glances out at the street and then begins making his way down the alley, more concerned with whether anyone is following him than with what lies in ambush.
Scratch
Ditch lies in wait, concealed from view.
Quantum
Happy taps Ditch on the arm and gestures toward the guy as if to ask if that's him.
Scratch
Ditch nods to Happy, giving him the signal.
Quantum
Happy nods and slides his Predator free from its holster. Big gun. Scary gun. He steps out into the alleyway, moving to the far side to give Ditch room to move, and levels the gun. "Hold it there, chum."
The guy stops when he turns to see the gun and vaguely lifts his hands halfway up. "Fuck. Fuck you, scumbucket, I'm not your chum." Got a little spine in him, don't he?
What does Ditch do?
Scratch
Then, when the guy is close, Ditch steps out and holds the Machete to his neck. "You're not walking away without us getting our payment, bud." He moves to block off the guy's exit and stays close to him, close enough to get him with machete or arm blade.
Quantum
The guy is completely taken by surprise. "Fuu--okayokayokay, jesus!"
Note:
Rolling dice was split between a dice app in front of me and a discord bot.
Scratch
"All of it, hand them over."
Quantum
Happy smiles, almost bouncing on his toes. Shit rarely goes this well. The guy slowly pulls a ridge wallet from his pocket and forks it over. "Them chains too, chum." Happy says, gesticulating with the gun.
Scratch
After the chains are gone, Ditch holds the machete a bit closer. "Don't forget the kicks."
Quantum
The guy scowls but pulls his shoes off with his feet. One sock has a hole in it where his big toe sticks out. Happy is ecstatic, this is the longest conversation he and Ditch have had with anyone in weeks. So he pushes it. "Check his pockets, Ditch. Make sure our chum ain't holding out on us, heh."
Scratch
"No funny business, hear? You'll be on your way soon."
He holds the machete at the man's neck from behind, and then checks his pockets with his other hand.
What does he find? Happy has been collecting the goods, as the guy takes it off.
Quantum
The guy protests as Ditch pats him down. "You really don't want to do this." In his left hand pocket, you find a blister pack of pills. Gas station brand caffeine shit, half gone. The right pocket is empty but you pat down his leg like you've seen in the holovids. "Don't!" he says, just as your hand grazes something small and hard (that's what she said) taped to his calf.
Roll initiative.
Scratch
Ditch holds the machete closer. "Shut up."
Initiative Rolls:
Happy rolls a 5 versus his Nimble of 3+ and Ditch rolls a 6 versus his Nimble of 4+. Both characters succeed on the Initiative test, so both characters go before the runner instead of after.
Quantum
This crazy fucker reaches up and grabs at the machete to push it away. Chaos erupts.
You got the jump on him you go first.
Scratch
Alright, I'm going to grab the thing on his leg and cut his throat.
Combat:
Quantum
Ok, you get one extra melee attack, so test Brawn twice
Scratch
and I get a +2 from arm blades
Ditch rolls a 4 and 5 versus Brawn 3+.
Quantum
So both successes, 2 damage.
Scratch
so he has 2 wounds left?
do I get the thing on his leg
Quantum
Yeah, we'll run him as a Ganger.
Yes, also.
You get two unique actions a turn.
Quantum
You cut a ragged gash across his collarbone and his hands fly up to staunch the sudden bloodflow.
Scratch
I'll use my second action to grab the thing and slip it into my secret pocket.
Since I'm behind him he shouldn't see where it goes.
Quantum
There's a lot of light coming from either end of the alley, so we can both see clearly. But even if it were dark, the alley would be lit up like daylight for Happy. Happy’s cybereyes focus on him, he whips out his second gun, and he fires three shots into the runner.
Combat:
Quantum
I get +2 for my eagle eye but -2 for attempting dual wield and an extra attack for gunner class.
Happy rolls a 6, 6, and 2 versus his Nimble of 3+. Two successes, two damage.
Quantum
Happy hits him center mass and he drops to the ground dead as a doornail, his face half obscured by a quickly reddening puddle.
"Shitshitshit, let's go!"
Scratch
"You lead, you got everything?"
"He had something on his leg he seemed to like more than his life, but I'm not checking until we're clear."
Making sure he has the loot, Ditch legs it after Happy.
Quantum
Happy nods and waves the chain, still clutched in his fist. We book it down the other end of the alley toward Broad and head west, almost immediately plunging into factory territory. Even with our masks on, the Dust is thick enough to cause us to cough as we enter.
Scratch
Ditch coughs less, his lungs hardened from Hookah and other narcotics.
Quantum
Happy leads the pair down a wide, paved pathway between two rows of warehouses. Many of which are abandoned, glass windows long ago shattered in.
Scratch
Ditch keeps an eye behind him as they run. Can't be too careful.
Quantum
It looks like an access road, the kind forklifts would drive about on. Far too narrow for ground vehicles. There used to be a Sushi shop on the northside called what google translate insists is Chichi no Sakana. Probably where the Daddies got their name from. Place is a burned out, hollow shell now, sandwiched between a beauty salon that's never open and a dollar store that always is.
At the end of the row, Happy approaches one of the empty warehouses and shoves some hastily placed pallets out of the way. Door's still intact, hanging slightly askew on two of its three hinges. Inside, it looks like Happy has prepared a small hideout. There's a cooler here half filled with melted ice and cans of beer, along with a couple sleeping bags and a lawnchair.
"Fuck man. Haha, we did it. How much is in the wallet? And what did you grab off his leg?"
Scratch
"Lemme check" Ditch checks again to make sure no one's on the street, then comes in and unpacks.
Ditch also checks how much the shoes will be worth, no blood on them thankfully.
Quantum
100 bits for the shoes. But 300 for the chain.
He's got a bitcard, useless to us without the pin but we could probably pawn it off on a fence for a standard fee.
The wallet's old, beaten up, not really worth anything to anyone. But it's a metal wallet, so it's still a good wallet.
The pills really are just caffeine pills.
Scratch
All that for a cheap pair of shoes, but that put us on the trail.
Quantum
And then there's the object, a shrinkwrapped cell phone.
Scratch
"Huh, this really worth dying for?"
Quantum
"The hell?"
Scratch
"Not sure if I want to crack it open here, maybe we can find a collector or something. That or it's got something worthwhile on it."
Quantum
"Look at that thing. It's older than dirt."
"Well, whatever, it's more money than we had yesterday. Maybe we won't have to stay overnight in one of these shitholes tomorrow. What do you think? Should we call Felix? He's the fixer who helped us last time. Or, uh...what was her name?" I snap my fingers, trying to remember. "That Carina chick in Southside. Don't know her but I heard she deals in older tech."
Scratch
"She might know someone who's interested even if she doesn't want it, definitely not worth getting 10 bits for this from a regular pawn place."
"Let's sell the other stuff first, have a good night somewhere, then get this thing dealt with. If she doesn't want it and doesn't know anyone we can go for Felix, but I'd feel bad bringing him something that could be a turkey."
Quantum
"Yeah, good point."
Lets say Felix owns the totally legit (tm) pawnshop further west of here. The Neon Quarter is basically a large ring that encircles City Center and the Corp Quarter. It's broken up here and there with factory blocks like this one and its outer edge blurs here and there with the Sushi Quarter.
Felix's pawnshop is at the western edge of the Neon Quarter.
Scratch
That works, and Carina we heard of in his shop, but haven't been to yet.
Quantum
Right. Carina will be in a place called Southside, in an area of the Block Quarter, a rundown grimy residential area.
Note:
Couldn’t help worldbuilding a little. Over the course of this session, we’ll modify and expand the way the City is presented in the game’s default setting. For this session, we still end up using the corpo names but that might change in any further sessions. They’re very cute, but still.
Scratch
So we bring the chain and shoes and wallet to Felix.
Quantum
Sounds good.
We wait for a couple of hours for any heat from the gunshots to die down. We're too far away from Club Synapse to hear or see any Enforcers (there's no government, the whole city is run by corpos).
Then, it's easy traversal. We're already west of the Corpo Quarter, so we don't need to worry about skirting around it. The walk to Felix's is about an hour from here. Or we could spend a few bits and take the tram.
Scratch
Let's walk, don't want to spend until we got the cash in our pockets. Plus, more corpos on the tram who might notice us carrying shoes.
Quantum
We pass by several large holo displays showing movie trailers on repeat. Moving as we are along the path of the Neon Quarter, we're in good company. Swarms of people have similarly chosen to walk and we move as a herd across massive crosswalks and down wide boulevards.
It's been raining recently, so it's unavoidable getting our own shoes wet even as we dodge puddles and splashing sent up by booted feet and ground vehicles cruising down the streets adjacent to us. Many people carry folded umbrellas. The rain is a blessing, though. Drowns out the stench of sweat and general humanity.
Scratch
The lights of the city reflect on the wet sheen of skin as Ditch walks, head on a swivel like half the crowd here, through the streets.
Quantum
In short order, a little less than an hour after we leave, now pushing one o'clock in the morning, we arrive at Felix's Pawn. Its interior is brightly lit in the front, dim in the back where the register counter sits behind safety glass. It's all brushed steel motif, without a lot of color, but cramped with an enormous amount of junk in steel and glass cases locked with padlocks.
Felix himself is a surly, square faced, squat man with a thick Romanian accent. He wears army fatigues and sports very archaic cybereyes, the obvious kind.
Happy follows Ditch in.
Scratch
Ditch nods to Felix.
Quantum
He looks up when the door chimes. "Oh, it's just you two." He levers himself out of his chair and leans on the counter as we approach.
Scratch
shoes and chain are all we give to him right? or do we give the card too
Quantum
Up to you.
Scratch
We've given cards to him before, and he gives a fair price for them.
"Came into a nice pair of new pair of kicks, a chain, and this little thing." Ditch says, flashing the card. "150 for the shoes, 350 for the chain, and the going rate for this little thing, might be more on it from the pot the shoes came from."
Quantum
Felix takes the items through a drawer drop built into the countertop. "Card comes from the same? Mmm." He looks the shoes and chain over. "I give you 90 for the shoes and 325 for the chain, yes?"
He taps the card on the counter while he waits for your answer.
Scratch
Ditch looks at Trigger. "Shoes are brand new, they're 120 at least."
Quantum
Happy nods up and down, a little too enthusiastically. "Got a cousin paid at least that much."
Felix pulls a sour face. "Go sell to your cousin then, he'll have back up pair. Fine, 115 for shoes."
He slots a card that looks similar to the one you gave him and jabs at a touchscreen a few times. "I give you standard 100 for the card."
Scratch
Ditch hands the shoes and chain over, then thinks for a sec before handing the card. "Not gonna haggle more on the chain or card because you're a good man to work with."
so 540 total bits?
Quantum
You hear him mumbling as he does the calculation. "115, 325, 100...540...yes."
He unslots the card and slides it through the half circle hole in the safety glass.
Scratch
"Pleasure doing business, as usual."
Quantum
He puts the shoes and chain in a box behind him and tosses the card in a desk drawer full of them. Not for the first time, it occurs to you that there's an awful lot of potential bits in there.
"Yeah, yes. You keep it coming, stay out of trouble, don't kill anyone." He waves you off and goes back to his holovid. Happy exchanges a look with you.
As we move out of the building and into the street, it starts to sprinkle. The walk to Carina's is further but the tram doesn't run out that far anyway. We could take it around the ring to the south, though, and cut our walk time down significantly.
Scratch
Ditch gives him a smile. "Always will Felix, see ya."
We got the cash, so Ditch turns to Trigger. "Take the tram now that we unloaded the goods? Or hoof it."
Quantum
There's a small sound, almost unnoticeable in the sudden roar of the street. But as we adjust, the persistent beeping noise draws our attention at the same time. "Yeah, my feet are tired. Let's tram it and get off at Spark Station, shouldn't be too far from there, if I remember right....hey, what's that sound?" I look at you because the beeping is coming from your secret pocket.
Scratch
"Ah shit, the thing's going off. Who knew something like that would even still function?"
Quantum
Happy’s eyes widen.
Scratch
"Let's get off the street. I need to check this out."
Ditch heads to an alley.
Quantum
Happy nods and follows.
Scratch
In a concealed place, Ditch takes the shrinkwrapped phone out.
"We don't have any lead or a faraday handy right?"
Quantum
There's a side street that leads under an underpass nearby and an alleyway that branches off directly before it. Very dark, very hidden, a single buzzing lamplight hanging above one steel door about halfway down. "No..." I look around. "Being near that underpass is about as good as we're gonna get, I think."
Scratch
Ditch gives a look at the phone, seeing what's up with it.
Quantum
You have to break it out of the shrinkwrapping to see anything other than a slow, blinking red light on the face of it, a little rectangular led.
It blinks in time with the beeping sound. About once every five seconds.
In the sky above, the droning sound of an ad blimp sounds out of nowhere as the blimp passes over the overpass and just over the entrance to our little alleyway. The sound makes Happy jump but the blimp moves obliviously onward, fading from sight and sound.
Scratch
Is there an antenna on it?
"Well, we either gotta ditch it or get it to Carina quick."
"I don't want something hot here."
Quantum
No, it looks like a flip phone. More modern, though...so...one of those smart phones we have now that fold in half.
Scratch
"Shit, what do we do."
Is it ringing or just beeping?
Quantum
"This is weird, man. If we give it to Carina and it's hot, well, shit...she's not an enemy I want to have. She came up in the Hives, you know? My cousin told me she was an Iron Maiden. Those bitches don't fuck around."
Scratch
Ditch shudders, few things make him shudder.
Quantum
Slow beep. Every five seconds. A little drawn out. Beeeeep....beeeep…It'd be like a combination of a notification sound and the sound of an old toy with a dying battery.
"Maybe we should check it? If it's being tracked or something, we might be able to turn it off."
We both stare at the phone for a minute.
Scratch
Ditch flips it open.
Quantum
You break the shrinkwrap and flip it open. It dings. You're greeted with a blank black background and a digital clock display (which is accurate). You can swipe to open the phone (there's no passcode). Again, a black background. There's a notification waiting at the top of the screen.
At the bottom, a call button, a text button, a GLOWNET button, and a Gallery button.
Happy cranes his head around to get a look at what you're seeing.
The light from the screen illuminates our faces in the dark alleyway.
Scratch
What's the notification?
Quantum
GPS active.
Scratch
Ditch hasn't used one of these since he was a kid, playing with his grandfather's.
"Shit."
Ditch tries to turn the GPS off.
Quantum
"What? What's that?"
Scratch
"GPS, it's being tracked."
"What the fuck is this thing."
Quantum
You can easily do so but you also know that this thing has been broadcasting its position for more than five minutes.
"Oh, fuck. Fuck." Happy starts looking around. There's sirens in the distance but he can't tell if they're coming toward you or not.
Scratch
"Let's dump it on the train and run the other way."
Ditch starts legging it.
Quantum
Happy runs after. It's a short 10 minute jog to the nearest Tram station.
Scratch
are there cars?
Quantum
Yeah, let's say 6 of them.
Scratch
is there like, traffic at a stop light
Quantum
I'm envisioning the tram stations as elevated platforms. So the trams pull up monorail style over the street.
Scratch
oh I meant like, actual car cars, like alongside the tram is there also like, car or flying car traffic
Quantum
Oh, yeah, there are ground vehicles. But there are definitely more hover cars than ground traffic. Each kind of driver thinks they're outsmarting the traffic jams of the other.
Scratch
I like that
Ditch goes up to the nearest stoplight, walks casually to a car stopped at the light, bends down to tie his shoe, spits out his gum, spreads it on the back of the phone, and sticks the phone in the wheelwell of the car.
He then notes the license plate of the car and watches it drive off.
Quantum
Happy keeps a nervous lookout.
Scratch
"Well, I turned off the GPS, so let's get out of here and wait until the heat dies down, then we can track down that car."
"Since if it's important enough to track, it must be worth something."
Quantum
A Pineapple drop ship appears in the sky overhead, dropping through the line of hover traffic and down toward the rooftops of the buildings around us, still a good seven eight stories up but wholly visible. It roars overhead down the street in the direction we came.
A lot of folks on the street stop to gawk after it.
Scratch
"That's our hint to leg it, Happy."
Quantum
So we're not alone in that. Happy’s eyes are saucers.
He nods and joins you as you leg it to the Tram Station, our quickest way out of here.
Scratch
Ditch makes like a tea and blends with the crowd as we go.
Quantum
We arrive on the platform maybe 10 seconds before the doors close and the tram launches.
I slump down on a seat and laugh nervously. We're both sweating bullets. It's pouring rain outside and the tram cuts a path through its curtain.
Scratch
"All that for some kicks huh? Kids these days." Ditch laughs too.
Quantum
Do you take note of the license plate number now that we're safe and seated? Or are you just going to try to remember it?
Scratch
Ditch works on memorizing it, he has a pretty alright system for that. You learn growing up in this city anything you write down can be nicked from you. So all important numbers have to be memorized.
Quantum
There are a smattering of tramgoers aboard with us but no one near. An old woman clutches her handbag and reseats herself further down in response to our laughter.
Memory Test:
Quantum
Make a Mind Test. We'll give your roll a +1 for your airtight system.
Scratch
Ditch rolls a 5 against his 4+ Mind. Success.
Quantum
Pretty airtight.
Scratch
Ditch grins.
Quantum
You commit the number to memory.
Scratch
make and model too
Quantum
"How we gonna find that car, Ditch?"
Scratch
"I know a guy at an insurance place, there's a city database they use. We can pay him to look it up for us."
Quantum
Happy nods.
Scratch
"Let's wait a few weeks for the heat to calm down, we kicked a can of bees and need to wait for them to settle."
Quantum
"Yeah, I think you're right." Happy chuckles a little and looks up at the ad board. His face goes white as a sheet.
Scratch
Ditch looks up.
Quantum
In the relative quiet of the tram car, broken only by the white noise grumbling of its operation and the pattering sound of the rain driving into it, the screen above one of the cabin doors is playing a news broadcast. There's a little Pineapple logo in the bottom corner of the screen next to a bright red bar that reads, "BREAKING NEWS." The broadcaster speaks in her clipped, matter of fact newscaster voice, "Pineapple Enforcers are looking for these two men. If you have any information, please contact your local precinct. In other news..." Briefly, there plays a semi blurry 3 second clip of our illuminated faces from about 15 minutes ago.
Scratch
Ditch pulls his hat slowly down, and gets ready to flip his coat inside out.
Quantum
Happy pulls his hood up and zips up the front of his jacket.
Scratch
"Uh, let's lay real low, pal."
"And split up."
Next: Episode Two?
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