Slot Off, Frag-Face! Let's Play Sega's Shadowrun

We've been here before - this is where we met Petr.



See?

Anyway, this booth has a couple of people to meet...



Gunderson warned us about this guy - apparently his profits were tinged with red with the percentages he was offering. But surely talking with him can't be that bad, right?



Yeesh. Maybe Gunderson was right - he suddenly switched into used-car salesman mode there. Let's just snag some info.



Oh come on! All right, let's pay the finder's fee...



Good, we got the number. Now let's get the hell outta here. This guy gives me the creeps. Time to give Max a ring-a-ding-ding...

Well. A bit better - maybe it's the lack of giant glowing laser eye that gives me a feeling of peace.



Ah-ha! Paydirt!



A mite expensive, but given that they'll keep corp security off our backs, worth every yen. Also, oddly, they can last more than one use - there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when it'll happen, though.



Here's the other stuff he's got. The H&K SMG is more expensive than the one's Quinton's selling, but it also comes with a surpressor. Bit of a trade-off, but hey. The AK...well...yeah.

But one of those passkeys would sure be nice. Especially the Level 5, as that's the most secure door that exists in the Sprawl.



Unfortunately it seems that we're a mite short on funds, so he tactfully brushes us off. Ah bless.




Let's pick up a couple SMG's from Quinton, as that will let me smoothly segue into the final part of this segment.

Time to grab a few more things from the Crime Mall.



Namely, some protection should things go south. Unfortunately, we can only afford two suits, so Petr has to go without. No worries, I'm sure the red shirt he's wearing provides ample protection from gunfire.



Oh, all right, I'll give him my old Jacket. Yeesh.



Accessorizing a gun can be a bit tricky. To start with, you have to pick a gun out of your inventory to accessorize.



Or else the Weapon Accessories page will be blank. Thanks, UI.

Anyway, here's a list of the gun accessories. Of course, I screwed up and lost the screenshot of the Smartlink System, so I'll just tell you about it here. Designed for the matching Smartlink Cyberware, it's a major boon to accuracy - if you have the cyberware. (Or Smart Goggles if you don't want people cutting into your skull, but it provides less of an accuracy benefit.) Otherwise, well, it does jack.




Only two major things to note: first off, the Silencer is for pistols only and the Surpressor for SMGs only. Secondly, there's very little difference between the Gas Vents 2 and 3 - other than gluing a 3 onto your gun will both replace and make it impossible to attach a 2 to your gun. No biggie, though, the 3 is better. I mean, it has 3 right in the name, so its obviously 1 better, right? A similar thing happens with laser sights and smartlink systems - Smartlinks will override laser sights. The only caveat there is that you may want to give a gun to someone who has neither a smartlink nor goggles, so watch out there.

We'll go ahead and trick out one SMG with a Smartlink, Gas Vent 3, and Suppressor, and hand it to Rianna. Next we'll put a Gas Vent 3 and a Suppressor on another SMG, keep the laser sight, and give it to MARIOHELPMEMARIOHELPME.



Finally, we'll stick a silencer on our Predator and hand it to Petr. Only the best in hand-me-downs for you, bucko!



Well, we're all loaded for bear this time. Let's see if we can keep that last dream from coming true.

Bummer chummers - we'll have to wait a little longer to see how the corp run goes. I've been spending most of today trying to clean up the aftermath of a burst pipe after our little storm.

We await! (I fell out of commenting but am totally still reading, keep it up~)

Wiz chummers, welcome back to Starbucks HQ. When we last left off, we had just illegally manipulated some data to purchase some illegal weapons and armor in an attempt to perform some blatantly illegal theft. Unfortunately, JC Penney then fired us, so it's time to get on with this LP instead.



We've got guns and armor -



And more importantly, fake IDs. As tempting as it is to use these to buy beer for teenagers at a 100% markup, we'll need these for something a little more important.



All right, we're in. Now let's see if we can find that cyb...


AAAAAAHHHHHHH ABORT ABORT WEAPONS FREE FALL BACK GO CODE CHARLIE FOXTROT



Oh, right. Um, yes - of course we belong here. Also, it turns out that buildings have a different sort of random encounter as you would see on the street. While the mysterious people constantly taking your picture are nowhere to be seen, you'll run into secretaries and other employees instead. Not only that, but you can pump them for info as well.



Apparently though, we'll need to do better than "Hey legs! When're you getting off?" That said, inter-office romance is currently only our secondary objective - we're here to win someone else's heart.



Alright, Rianna, you're up.



And they're down. Heh heh heh.



Ah, another random encounter - which works much the same way as finding that security panel earlier. However, since we both have already shut off the cameras and have Joshua instead of Rianna in the lead...



Let's not push our luck.



Oh geez. The big test. Left hand hands over the badge, right hand tightens on the gun's grip...



Whew! Worth every cent.



With the security guards no longer posing a threat, we can feel free to walk about the building a bit more freely. (Note that we're not completely above reproach, though. If we set off the alarm somehow - say by fragging up messing with the security panel - the guards will still target us even though we've got IDs.)

Still, we'll need to explore. Stuff that you need to grab from a corp is usually in a safe. Oddly, cracking open a safe is handled with all the pomp and circumstance of opening a kitchen cabinet, as none are locked.

Drek! I knew we forgot something from our little shopping trip! Fortunately, forcing open a maglock door is dependent on Electronics, something Rianna has in spades. Give it a go, girl...



Yeah! Also, note that forcing a door open with Electronics doesn't raise suspicion the way that forcing it open with a grenade does.



Well well well - a datajack terminal. This could solve a multitude of problems for us in one shot.



As noted before, jacking in within a corporation will start you out at a different node than if you just jack in off the street. Not only that, but some of the larger corps even have multiple IOPs - each one corresponds to a different physical location in the building. So, the further you pass through physical security, the less you have to pass through virtual security.

Neat.



That said, we've still got a ways to go through this system before we can mess with things. Also it's kinda confusing in that we're not sure which way leads further into the system and which way just leads back to the street jack-in point. I figure that heading towards the center will lead us deeper into the system, though.



I've still got no clue where we are in the system, though. Fortunately, you can pause at any time in the Matrix - this brings up the configuration screen. Also, the bottom row/second from right option brings up the system map. Not only that, but you can retreat from a node as long as it doesn't know you're there (i.e.: You haven't attacked it or fragged up running Deception or Analyze or somesuch.)

Given the circular node next to us, however, we'll want to crack this one. See, that node is a SM - Slave Module. These modules control security aspects of the corp - such as security cameras, alarm systems...and Maglock Doors. If we should happen upon such a slave module and bring it down, all the doors in the corp will just slide right open.



Oh drek.

Drek drek drek! This isn't good. There's one more little problem with connecting in a corp - if the Matrix enters an Active Alert state, it will turn the alarms on in the physical corp as well. This does not bode well for our run - and Rianna can't crack this ice, either! Time to bail out...



There's always a last-ditch method out of the Matrix if you're in over your head, or just want to leave. Usually you'll jack out if you've got a full load of data files and have no more business in the Matrix until you offload them. However, now would be a good time to jack out so as not to raise security...the problem is that Black Ice will not only hurt you directly while you fight it, but also hurt you if you try to jack out while it's aware you're in its personal space.

Unfortunately, it seems like we have little choice if we want to keep those alarms off, so...



AAAAAHHHHHhhhhkkkkkk....*pant pant*



"Rianna! Are you OK? How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Um....four?"



"OK, she's good. Let's go!"



We make our way over to another security panel, but given that the cameras are already off and we have this uncanny feeling that what we want is on the third floor due to that weird dream we had, we pass it by. Over to...

"Wait! Don't move, there are guards around!"



Um...OK. I don't see any guards, but if you say so...
"Wait...wait...now!"
Huh?



Dammit! Ah well. Since we've got ID's there's nothing to worry about.



Eep.



Phew. Quit yanking my chain, Shadowrun!

We finally find the elevator and make our way to level three again for the first time.



Our first obstacle is this set of maglocked doors. Time to step up again, Rianna!

"Leave it to me!"




Easy enough - onto the next door.



Uh-oh. Well, there's good news and bad news here. The good news is that we're reasonably certain that we've found where Fuchi has that cyber-heart stored. The bad news is that it's behind the highest-ranked Maglock door yet. Not sure if we can crack it, but we've gotta try...



Drek. Well, keep at it, Rianna - we'll run interference for you.



Well, that was quick.



DREK!!! RIANNA HACK THE DOOR EVERYONE ELSE HACK THROUGH HIM!!!




The mage is down, but he summoned a huge scorpion before he expired - this is just the first of many enemies that come swarming out once the alarm is tripped. (The mage tripped it - as does any security guard that you fail the badge check on.) As well, it's a good time to talk about mages and their badge-checking skills. Namely, they're pretty good. See, while security guards just look at your badge and go, "Yep, it's a badge." and wave you through, mages have these rather annoying incantations that they can use to determine that you are not, in fact, an employee of Shinra Fuchi. While I have gotten by a mage on a badge-check before, it seems to be far less often than getting by security guards.

Rianna's attempts with the door seem to be a big Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game, with about twenty or so loops of the top screen followed by one of the bottom ones - the alarm resetting every time she hits bottom right. However...



After a while the building is exhausted of security troops. By an astonishing coincidence, the number of troops on duty is equal to the number of distinct characters that the Genesis holds in memory - so Rianna can bang away at the door all she wants as long as the corpses stay onscreen. Finally, after about forty (really) tries, Marlene Hojo strolls over to help by suggesting his favorite number as a passcode...




...and the door finally opens.



WHAT

"Wait a sec...look!"



"Do you see what I see?"



Not quite...



Bin-fraggin-go! Now let's get the hell outta here!

The problem is that the alarm is *still* going off - and while it is, all elevators are locked down. So we wait around here for a while until the alarm stops, which takes about a minute.



Longest minute of your life, right there, man.



Almost there...just need to hit the front door...



NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO



OOOOOO-kay nice to see you too! Oh, um, janitor's busy shampooing the carpet on the third floor, so he asked that no one go up there for about an hour or so. *dash*

(This could've been a very real failure right here. If my team got fragged, they'd rip the cyber-heart outta my hands and plunk it back in the safe on the third floor - and they'd probably be able to do that since the front door gets locked down along with the elevators when the alarm goes off. In addition to having a partially addled mind at the moment, Rianna has gone through all her ammo and is currently hitting people with her manicure.)



I have never been so happy to see a lobby in my life.



We could've just walked there, but where's the fun in that?




Yes! Stark's up and running again! Next time we'll catch up with Stark and congratulate him - it's good to know that the Cyber-heart went to someone who truly deserved and needed it. It probably would've gone to some rich idiot otherwise.

Too soon?

Very special thanks to "Let Me Trainwreck Final Fantasy VII For You!" - by Andyman Messiah for all the out-of-place pictures. Rest assured that they were all used for poor attempts at comedic (read: non-profit) purposes.

Someone is getting his pay docked tomorrow for not stopping the heavily armed gang of bandits that left a pile of corpses on the third floor. Come to think of it, he's probably faking letting you by and thus has an unusually high self preservation instinct for this security team.

Oh well, if video game security forces were actually competent, where would the fun be?

"Whoops, the alarm cut out. Guess everything's been taken care of! I'll just run back to my post without reporting in. Initiative! That's how you get promotions!"

Wiz chummers, welcome back to the sprawl. Sorry about the delay - I've got nothing to blame except for laziness between this update and the last. Erm, I mean, it was the revolutions! They kept me up all night with contracts and biz.

Now where were we? Oh yes - we'd just stolen someone's heart away, and summarily used it to repair someone else. Also, in doing so, we burned through about a semi full of ammo.



As previously mentioned, Rianna's completely dry, and Marsupial Hornet is nearly tapped out as well. So...



To hell with walking around unarmed, says I.



Fortunately, Ares has what we need to get things done around here. Somehow, each one of these clips can fit into any gun, from a revolver to a shotgun. Go fig, huh? Maybe they're made with nano-technology or something. I haven't seen configurations like this since Bungie beat-em-up Oni.

For the full effect here, go back up to those three pictures and look at them over and over again, shaking your head at the sheer absurdity of it all. Not because of the previous sentence, mind, but because you have to purchase these gun clips - One. At. A. Time. For each character, too! Down, Up, A, Down, Up, A, Down, Up, A...

Zzzzzz...



Alright, we're topped up. Now we're prepared in case something goes horribly wrong in Underground 93.



Hmmm...that guy at the bar seems kinda familiar.



Ladies and germs, meet Stark. He's the first person who's genuinely happy to see us from the get-go without a little cash incentive.



It seems that Stark saw my brother as none other than a brother from another mother.



Unfortunately, it seems that Mike took the secret of what he was looking for to the grave - apart from those killing him, of course. Hmmm...there's a chance that he might be persuaded to help us f...



Whoa! Stark just joined our team, for life, for free! He didn't even complain about there being too many peop...hey, where did Rianna go?!! Ah dammit! *state load*

Welp, it's time for us to bid Petr a fond farewell. While he was overshadowed by Rianna most of the time, he helped us get out of the initial grind and actually purchase some stuff. Here we use Dismiss Runner to free up his slot. Unfortunately, we don't get a refund or anything.



All right, now we're going Stark-ers. That said, he's the only runner in the game that will join us for free, it may be a case of getting what you pay fo...



HOLY DREK! Look at that attack and defense power!



He even has one of our dream guns, kitted out to the max, as well!



And smart goggles!



And...um...OK, so he's not completely perfect. Still, this guy's a tank.



In the offensive, defensive, and possibly even literal senses of the word. Hell, this guy has more steel in him than Pittsburgh!



And this is on top of an incredibly strong and nimble actual body, to boot! The only real con here is that he's got so much Cyberware in him that he simply can't take any more with his 0.1 Essence. Then again, holy mother of caramel, does he have a lot of cyberware!



Let's take a visit to Dr. Bob and find out what all he's packing.

Oddly, he doesn't have a Datajack - so Rianna is now our only liaison into the Matrix at the moment.



He does have Cybereyes, though. Apart from being a race that has infrared vision, this is the only way to see invisible creatures. Not quite my style, though - I'd prefer a set of Molly's glasses.



Hand Razors and Spurs let you take knives into a fistfight - and pack quite a punch if you run low on ammo. Oddly, despite them being mounted of different parts of the arm, you can replace Hand Razors with Spurs with all the difficulty of replacing a Gas Vent II with a Gas Vent III. You even get the extra 1/10th of essence back, too. (No trading down, though.)



Stark doesn't have a Smartlink, but Rianna does - this helps accuracy. Stark does have a set of Smart Goggles, though, which work almost as well.



Stark has got both natural and artificial guns at the gun show, baby.



He's also got abs of steel - literally. Dermal plating amounts to essentially body armor implanted in your actual body. This is also some cyberware that you can get multiple layers of as well - Stark has no less than three layers of plasticine-carbon-steel between him and the outside world.



Finally, we have Wired Reflexes, which both Stark and Rianna each have two doses. (Oddly, the second dose costs a lot less than the first in terms of essence.) These essentially make you into The Flash in combat. Rianna having these as well is the main reason that she ran out of ammo in the last update - she was just pumping everything full of lead like there was no tomorrow. That said, running out of ammo is perfectly acceptable when everything that causes you to need said ammo is quickly laid at your feet in several pieces.

So - in summary, Stark is an absolute beast, and he'll be on our side for life. Even if he gets wasted, he'll join up with us for free once we get out of the hospital as many times as it takes. Frag yeah.

Now then - I believe that he wanted some closure regarding Mike's murder. As luck would have it, so would I. A while back, we got a tip that said the Renraku guy tailing Mike before his death was running up a tab at Club Penumbra.



I think it's time to go clubbing.

Oh come on! This is a rather nasty roadblock to throw our way, Sega. There's not a scripted event we have to trigger here - to get past here, we need to improve our reputation on the Karma screen. Yes, really. And by 'our', I mean Joshua's - even though Stark is more than high enough to get through, it won't get us past the velvet rope for some reason.

It's quite irritating, because aside from saving slight amounts of money, that's *all* reputation is good for - which sucks when you have to sink points into that as opposed to, say, improving firearm or sorcery skills.



Right, right, let's get this over with.



AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Fragging drek, I'm two points short. And if I go on a shadowrun to get more points, Rianna will leave...unless...no...No....NOOOOOOOO!!!



Yup - I went back to Gunderson. It was the only way to get Karma without losing Rianna. I feel dirty. Anyway, somehow ferrying those packages around for barely any pay made me more famous around Seattle. Then again, I guess the population is mostly bike couriers...



Revenge is a dish best served by Gunderson, I guess. Let's see if that company man's still there.



About fraggin' time.

All right, buddy, I want answers.



Oh come on! You want some of this? I'll take you all on!



I'm not the greenie tourist you tried to gun down before, am I? AM I?!!




Up yours and have a bullet breakfast!



*pant pant* Where the hell's Mako?

I worked for Goddamn Gunderson to get to you. You'd better start talking now.



I'll bet.



Given he already told me everything without a massive gunfight, I'm more inclined to believe him than you, pal.




Dammit! Gotta find the next link in the chain.



Good riddance.



Hey barkeep!

Sorry about the mess.

Goddamn, I love me some Shadowrun. Keep up the good work! When do you think you'll start delving into magic some more?

hopefully never. shadowrun magic sucks.

This is great!

Looking forward to the promised magic, I expect it to be somewhat useful endgame.

Son, you will be disappoint.

Wiz chummers, welcome back to Frappachino Central. When we last left off, we'd fought off a Renraku Strike Team and gotten some info for our troubles. Today seems like a good time to capitalize on that.



Oddly enough, the bouncer here doesn't seem to give a crap about us turning the dance floor into a thousand round orgy of death, so he lets us right in after paying the cover again. Go fig.



Not too many people left in the bar at the moment, although this one at the end does catch my eye...



Those aren't the only things I want. (I also want to be less lecherous around videogame characters.)



Interesting. A magical assassin. Abraca-dead! (Granted, I'm doing pretty much the same thing, except with guns as opposed to magic. And don't worry, magic fans, I'll get into magic soon - possibly next update.)



She confirms the word going around about Vigore as well. Probably a good idea that I didn't get too mixed up with him.



She also recommends Julius (AKA Captain Price) to do runs for, which is fairly ridiculous given that we've got someone at The Big Rhino to give us the same runs, only without the obscene cover charges.



Unfortunately, our party's still topped off, so we can't have two hot elf chicks following us at the moment - we'll have to settle for a single hot elf chick and a cyborg.

Moving on, we've gotten fairly injured in that bar brawl, so it's a wise idea to head over to Seattle General to get patched up.



It's a wiser still idea to just buy some medkits and patch ourselves up, though - just look at those prices! So much for that health bill passing, huh?



On our way out, we're accosted by this guy in the alleyway, offering to sell us a set of mostly useless Frag Grenades. We'll just pass on by. (And it's probably for the better, as half the time this is part of a Lone Star sting operation, and will lead to you facing down some cops.)

But enough about that - it's time to get some answers from this Ogami guy. Mako said that he flew in and is staying at a local hotel, so it's time to check all the usual haunts.



First off, the place we keep coming back to again and again for some reason, Stoker's.



Unfortunately, it seems that Stoker doesn't know anything about him, so that's one hotel down...



After a ludicrously short bout with some weenies, we head over to the other side of town to our next checkpoint...



Hope they changed the sheets since Tabitha got gunned down here...




Nothing on Ogami, but he does have a tip about meeting Frosty - who apparently set up Mike's run in the first place. (Caleb told us this way back when.) After we sort out Ogami, it may be a good idea to track her down...

Yeesh, how many hotels are there in this damn town?



Well he's not here either - granted, he probably wouldn't be. I don't really see the Mafia hiring someone named Ito Ogami when there's a Yakuza branch nearby.



Ah-ha! Of course he'd stay at the fanciest hotel possible if he's doing it on Renraku's expense account.



Check your clips, everyone - this could get rough.



Though we have enough time to get pulled over to do a good deed first. Hopefully this will square us with that bearded guy in the sky for what we're about to do...



Must...resist...slot...based...line...



Why are they never alone? *sigh*

The suits go down fairly easily, oddly enough - but Ito just won't take a hit! We just can't get through that armor!



Crap! And I forgot to buy extra clips for Stark! Now what's he gonna d...



Oh. Oh my. I guess that's a lesson learned - wearing a bulletproof vest that will let you shrug off cartloads of ammo will do jack against getting punched repeatedly by Wolver....I mean, a hypothetical superhero with carbon-steel blades protruding from his wrists.



Ito is down, man, and I mean down.

Can't really interrogate him now, but this is the next best thing.



Probably Mako's shot, inherited by the new boss.



Who did want Mike dead? (Assuming that Mako was telling the truth about Renraku wanting them alive...for the moment.)



I think we solved the mystery of how Vigore has such good jobs and why people are leery of him.



HELL YEAH!



DOUBLE HELL YEAH!




After jotting everything down in our trusty notebook, it's time to take stock. We've got a few leads to follow here - first, there's Frosty, who was last seen somewhere in the Sinsearch on AmerIndian land. Second, there may be some info tucked away in Ito's personal network. Third, there's probably more data on what Mike was up to in Renraku itself. Finally, there's Vigore - if we confront him with what we know, he may spill the beans on Thon, and his part in Mike's death.

But before all that, there's one more thing we need to do...



Hey barkeep!

Jack and Coke. Put it on Ito's tab.