#8 Street Justice

The story so far: We're playing a fool-punching shadowrunner who betrayed a Seattle employer to save thousands of lives in the Antumbra nightclub. Transferred to San Francisco, the company that owns the nightclub hired him to discover damning evidence to implicate its evil rival megacorporation, Aztechnology. But after we punched and blasted our way through its dark pyramid, we found a surprise - a lone troll who killed the guy in charge, stole some paydata we may or may not have needed and flung himself out the window, declaring allegiance to Norton. Now we're searching for this Norton - and some answers.

Gangs and marines, lovely. 1nv4d3r has his own gangland past, but I'd rather not pick sides until I get an idea of who's doing what.

We start out in a broken down locale reminiscent of the Seattle Barrens.

We come across a local Automatics Anonymous meeting.

No, it's a bunch of gangers being yelled at by a bunch of marines. What are the odds?

This isn't the West Side Story I remember

Wait a minute... that name 'Voire' looks familiar.

And not just because I played this before.

Oh. Oh, it's HIM.

The guy who I found info on so Hailey could give me the fake SIN. All that searching and we just run into him at random.

I never knew you had it in you, Hailey.

The Etiquette uses here are fascinating.

Usually you do use them this way, Gang to convince gang members of something, Security to convince security forces of something.

But with the context here, with one check opposed to the other, it feels counterintuitive. The Gang option allows your character, ostensibly a former gang member, to side with the Security force and the Security option lets you side with the gang.

...no words.

This guy gets an instant F in Rhetoric class.

The problem with the idea that this guy is just doing his job is that (i) his job sucks and (ii) he seems to actually believe in it. We've been given no reason to side with the marines other than this general assertion that "everyone" knows that where metahumans congregate, violence happens. Although this game actually had that happen in the first part, that violence was caused by a megacorporation and a very human Johnson.

Safe from what? You?

He might have been more convincing if he'd adopted this more professional tone from the start but nope, he's just managed to convince us that he's a pretentious snake.

We're a fool-punching shadowrunner though and in this exchange, though there are fools on both sides, only one side comes out looking truly foolish.

That's going to be your health count in a moment, man.

"Chummers" is perhaps my least favourite bit of shadow-slang.

The opening of this fight is a joke. The gang gets a free round, but they shoot mostly at different people and the one guy who tries to focus an enemy misses completely. We end up in the middle of a bunch of hostile Saito pawns.

Our hero and the drone try focusing on the guy right in front of Voire but can't manage to take him out. Hailey marks one of the tougher marines. The gang and marines fire wildly at each other. One gang member is half dead, and the marked marine goes down.

Hailey marks the marine captain and we drive him further into cover. A mook shoots our drone, the captain shoots 1nv4d3r. Meanwhile the gang flanks and finishes one of his men.

The captain continues to soak up damage, hitting our hero again, and it takes one of the gang's mages to finally put him to rest.

Our drone gets the last word in.

...that was remarkably easy. Getting the info I mean, not the fight. That fight was annoying.

Before going anywhere we check our health.

We steal Hailey's medkit for ourselves and use one of ours to heal one of our tag-alongs who's at half health.

We head through the alley our confrontation took place in, to the northwest...

It isn't clear from here but that's an invisible wall we're next to. I literally can't cross this street. Oh well.

Marines at the next corner! Our allies take position.

Upon being shot, this marine has a grand revelation.

The gang clips him hard, but we're too far away. Our drone takes minor damage. We take him out behind a car but 1nv4d3r gets shot twice. Our mage finishes one of his friends. The last one hides behind a fruit cart.

I drive him out from behind the fruit cart, and the mages finish him off.

I MUST KNOW

The second option is tempting but... 'what he's done' so far is just get the marines mad at the whole neighbourhood. Note that you get this conversation regardless of which side you choose. You could've killed him yourself.

I don't know if there were any Voire/Hailey shippers out there but this is for you.

The best part is that Voire is basically right behind us.

Stuck with the two less personal options, we choose the 'moron' one.

The marines might suck but hanging out past curfew isn't any kind of organised resistance.

On our way to the road in the south, we pass a giant totem pole. Because this is Shadowrun after all.

Another pair of blocked streets. Who wants to bet there are marines to the west?

Ayup. Par for the course, our allies miss every single shot they fire.

1nv4d3r lands the first strike.

Most of our group focuses fire on the guy behind the bench, and 1nv4d3r's quarry flees to the blue cycle - right next to two of our allies. Meanwhile, a third marine comes up the street as backup.

We have the marines running back and forth. One of our gangers - a dumb dwarf with a shotgun - manages to kill his own ork ally and blast Voire - before their mage finishes the second marine. We chase the third to the end of the building...

...and punch the fool.

Time for another medkit. Fool-punching is a dangerous business.

Oh look. A poorly lit parking space full of diverse, expensive-looking motorcycles. Surely the marines, arbiters of public order, security and public decency that they are, would never dare start a fight in he-

Oh.

Our mage, finding her footing, blasts the two men who made the mistake of taking cover together. Shotgun dwarf quickly finishes the one on the left. Unfortunately for us, we're too far away to attack effectively.

We close in on the gunner by the cycle on the left, and he flees, shooting 1nv4d3r. His mage friend tries to come up behind our ork, but our mages take them out instead.

Fool-puncher and drone hassle the enemy in the back until he runs out in the middle and gets ambushed by our mages.

As for his buddy, one last punch is all it takes.

FINALLY. NOTHING CAN STOP US FROM-

- aha.

We try to just access gate control, like a bunch of plebians.

But the Senate refused to change. So this parking lot is for a Stuffer Shack. Stuffer Shacks are an unholy cross between convenience stores and full-fledged department stores. They're everywhere and they sell practically everything. And, bizarrely, the chain is owned by Aztechnology.

We retrace our steps and find this wealthy-looking guy.

...I am not paying this guy.

Of course, no pay, no help. Past the barricaded area we find this guy.

"Fellow" whaa -- but he's not an --

That should not have worked but here we are.

We run back to the gate, and...

Of course.

Don't worry. We too are dangerous creatures. Right Hailey?

Okay well, maybe Hailey's drone is a dangerous creature.

A cab beckons to us, and we enter it.

It's been a wild ride, and I suspect the wildness is only going to get wilder.