Session Date: 11/01/2024
Sunday, September 3rd, 2045
Combat
Omen had just dropped an EMP grenade and blinded Garf, while Omen lost a quick release feature of the grenade belt, and one of the mantis blades. Emerick, Net and Saint continue to rush to the van in the attempt to get out. Net unlocks the van and gets into the driver’s seat to begin to hotwire things while Saint fires a grenade at Omen that hits both Garf and Omen. The nomad friend that Garf brought kills Omen, and the rest of the party sees the nomad run out of the room and all of our hearts drop as we feel the tension in the air spike. When we look back to see what happened, Omen’s body falls limp and out of Garf’s grip, onto the ground.
Garf reaches down and tries to rip the shotgun collar off and she’s blaming herself for not being fast enough, strong enough, or able to save him. She loses her sense of rationality as she is at a loss of what’s going on, and then turns to the nomad and tears her throat out and kills her for killing Omen. Garf realizes what she had done as she comes back to reality and says fuck. She looks toward everyone and holds her bloodied, twitching hands forward, asking what happened.
Net calls out saying that she just killed the only person who knows how to fly an AV out of here. Garf denies that she definitely didn’t do this, couldn’t have, it must have been Mr. Steele - he had turned Omen crazy, he must have turned Garf crazy too.
Net gets the van hotwired and it’s rough - it’s been a few years since the van’s been started, and it’s amazing that it even does start.
Garf picks up the body and throws it over her shoulder, saying that we can’t leave him here - and we can’t leave the nomad here, either. She drags the corpses to the van and loads them in. Garf and Saint hop into the van. Garf helps Emerick get into the van, putting him in the passenger seat.
Net demands to see the helmet from Omen because there’s something in there he wants back. As Garf removes the helmet, a family photo falls out of the helmet - Omen is there, along with all of the people he considers his family surrounding him. Garf shoves the picture into the jacket she gave to Emerick that he is still wearing, then smacks Emerick a little and tells him to find it later - we owe it to Omen. Emerick nods a little to her in acknowledgement that he heard her.
Net is digging around in the helmet to retrieve the cyberware from inside the helmet while also driving us toward the hangar. Net gets the smart glasses and the low light/ir/uv mod. He hands the helmet back to Garf and then continues to drive them. Net drives us down a tunnel that is open and the only way to continue on at this moment. In the tunnel we have a little time to process, and as we head toward the end of the tunnel we see a few doors and staircases. Net parks the car and sighs.
He addresses Garf and asks if she is with him, and she confirms. He asks if Emerick is with him, whistling to get his attention, and Emerick slowly nods. Net presents our options: go back to the AV and try our luck, or we go up the stairs. Garf says we need to take the AV to get everyone out, lying that she can definitely pilot the AV. She manages to convince Net, but he does say that he is going to copilot with her. He turns around and pops the van over the debris in the center of the room, and continues driving until we find the entrance to the hangar.
Net parks the van and we all start to get out. Net snaps his fingers in front of Emerick’s face and tells him to get moving, stop dragging. Emerick gets himself put together enough to get moving to the hangar while Garf moves the corpses to the door. Net manages to get the AV online and we get inside the hangar. We see the AV inside and with a renewed sense of purpose and begin running toward the AV.
Emerick hears the same distinct heavy footsteps and Emerick’s mind shoots over toward the sound. Emerick almost comes to a stop as Steele steps out and sees all of us heading toward the AV. He immediately says no, not like that, and taps a screen on his wrist to hear a series of turrets start opening up, with laser sights training on us. Net gets the feeling that these are rather old Militech turrets, though he isn’t sure what the actual model is.
Net puts his hands up to his shoulders and tries to start bargaining: he says that he knows a guy that has better turrets. Steele tells him to shut up, and then begins to monologue about how he has important work that he doesn’t like having interrupted. He approaches us as he speaks, rambling about such things, and then he reaches Net. Steele says that Net has a nice tech hand, then dead-ass just rips his hand off. Net starts to scream bloody murder.
Steele then looks at Saint and says that whatever Saint does - he doesn’t give a shit, as long as he never sees Saint again. He doesn’t know Saint enough, nor does he care - he knows where Saint’s business is, and where he lives. If Saint so much as thinks about doing a single thing, he will see that place burned to the ground with him and everything he loves in it. Saint acknowledges.
Garf chimes up with a well-placed, “Hey steel dick!” She asks if he’s experimenting, gently placing the bodies down. Steele says yes. Garf offers a deal: she’ll be a new test subject, but the rest of us go free and we get the bodies and the AV. She walks towards Steele, Emerick grabbing her as she passes by. She shoves Abby - the shotgun - into his arms and tells him to hold onto it until she gets back. He wants to protest, but doesn’t.
Steele accepts, then steps up to Emerick. Garf says to back off and leave Emerick out of whatever it is Steele is going to say, and Steele turns around and punches her twice. Garf speaks a big game but Steele tells him fuck no, fuck off. He shoots her with a concussive blow and knocks her off her feet.
He looks back to Emerick, staring at him dead in the eyes. Steele says that he better not see a single word of this whole night, or anything ever mentioning his name, ever written by him or anyone he knows. Emerick doesn’t say anything but simply returns the gaze. Steele’s commanding, threatening presence reminds Emerick of something. Steele breaks the contact and moves on, saying he’s had his fun. He taps on a pad and the AV doors open while the hangar door starts opening. He takes the sandevistan and the mantis blades from Omen’s corpse and then walks away, scruffing Garf as he starts to walk away. The AV starts to take off with everyone on it.
Garf asks if she doesn’t get any somber goodbyes, and he asks why she cares. She says it’s always sad to see a friend die, then pulls out multiple grenades and pulls the pins on them and says that he hits like her grandmother, and fucks like her too. They explode and Steele gets a torn muscle and a foreign object, and kill Garf.
Net and Saint are struggling to pilot the AV, then Net realizes that the autopilot is on. He stops Saint from messing around with this and Net puts the coordinates in to his gang’s territory. Net gets up and calls his uncle - he explains he needs a favor and we need a landing pad in the hood because Net is bringing him an AV. He agrees and gets things moving after getting the ETA from Net.
Net gets all of that sorted out and then gets up and calls Emerick over. He opens his arms and Emerick hesitates, a little confused, then they take a moment to hug it out. Net squeezes Emerick in the hug, and then lets him go. Net explains that Emerick is going to be meeting his uncle sooner than he thought, and Emerick says okay. Net sits back down and has Saint fix up his dismembered hand.
The Letter from Garf
After all of this, Emerick feels something vibrating with a notification sound, and it’s Garf’s cyberdeck. Emerick opens the message and a video plays:
A video arrives in the group chat. It began to play and it showed a young woman with dark brown hair and eyes in a sterile white room, she was setting up the camera making the video shake before settling. A date was shown in the top left (04/26/2038) The young woman had a simple white jumpsuit with a few green accents on as she began to speak “Hello uh… Me? Dad always talked about how some of the exotic tech makes you forget yourself, So I’m recording this to remind you… I mean me… or maybe us is best of uh who we are. I’m programming this to be forced to play when we get out of the operation. Our name is Luna Rose, our mother is skyler rose and our father” she trailed off and whipped a small tear from her eye
“He’s Steve Rose and he’s gone.. we um.. we messed up some of his code. I have no clue if mom’s still around working in security but I know dads gone. Now um t- the reason we are going through with this exotic operation. We want to hide and no better way to hide than to reinvent ourselves. Just go by Garf now and remember to-“
The video is cut off by another starting. The date changed to (07/23/2040) This one was of Garf in the back of a van packed with people. She wore a crop top and jeans with a jacket tied around her waist. She wore a smile and flipped the camera to a large figure in a hoodie with a grasshopper on the hood that’s pulled up. “Heyyy! Oh come on grasshopper don’t you wanna be on camera?” The hooded figure shook their head and garf sat back down in the last row “Alright alright… oh right hey me um we are heading to Vegas! This guy offered a fortune just to act as muscle for some deal” An unseen figure spoke “Just why are you recording a video?” *Garf barked back annoyed “Look memory gets a little hard when a chunk of her brain is blown onto the ground of a building brought down on top of you! So I wanna make sure I remember. Anyway before I was rudely interrupted, yeah we are doing a mission to act as muscle on a gig uhh if You forget what’s happening just listen to grasshopper they can hopefully keep you in line”
The video cuts again with now Garf standing in the desert and the date being (03/20/2043) She had a melancholic expression and wore her Mercury Riders jacket and body weight suit. “So… I found out I died again… Snowball apparently got me out after grasshopper stabilized me. I don’t know what happened to the others or even how I died…. Last I remember I was burning up before just nothing. I’ve been piecing back what happened in my life before that and saw I was recording these videos to remind myself I guess. Maybe I should put these all together.. make a strange momento mori, well I’ve been working with the Mercury Riders to get their computers working, I’ve gathered that I know biotechnica systems but.. these systems are military grade but.. old. Snowball told me how the pack started as a left behind Sea Bee Battalion and how under her mothers leadership they fought back to America and beached their former ship. I’m growing homesick… though I don’t remember if I have a home. I know I’m from night city so I’m heading there. Snowball gave me this jacket when I told her I wanted to go home and asked that I find a media to get in contact with so she could expose the atrocities in Vegas. I can only try”
Cutting again the video comes back with the date of (2/13/2044). Garf sets the camera down and steps back, she is in a garage with the sounds of a buzzing saw in the background. A small kibble cake sat before her
A female voice could be heard behind the camera “Just why the hell do you want this recorded?”
“Because snow, I want to remember this birthday! It’s been a whole year since I’ve been killed! Now don’t turn this into a sex tape with how much you are eye fucking Nathan” Garf huffed as she blew out the small candle. A figure with white bunny ears could be seen diving on Garf taking her to the ground and making the camera fall down. A small fight occurred as Garf’s laughter filled the air. Another male figure pulled the bunny off her.
“Hey! Everyone! We gotta get ready for the Sushi job! Garf you ready?”
Garf huffed as the sounds of movement could be heard out of frame
“Yeah I’m ready omen!” She yelled back as she stood up and the video distorts and cuts away
A more recent video begins, Its date being only 5 weeks ago. Garf was crouched over in her large box and Torrents Jpop can be heard in the background. “So uh figured I’d update this weird momento mori, I’m running with a crew now. We are working for this guy called juice and a band called Curb stomping word vomit. It’s a really cool group! There’s this medic called torrent who loves Jpop and I think she’s pretty cool. There’s net who loves to work on cars, I can only imagine what he would think if he saw the riders vehicles. Omen is this strong but silent type, he never speaks and just texts us and then there’s this guy called emerick… I’m hoping He can help snowball break the news but i haven’t asked him about it. Would be pretty funny if this is how he found out. I’ll just force send this video to the group chat haha.”
One final video crackles to life without a date, garf sits on her mess of a bed late at night with the camera across the room, she wares an old hoody with holes along the arms and some simple shorts. Behind her on the wall was a large mural with a large dragon head that looked as though a robot had drawn in white tape “Hey! I’m sure the looks on your faces are priceless because you thought you would never see me again, hey no crying! If your crying I’ll come back from hell to slap you ” she laughed as she kept her eyes on the ground “well I’m dead, probably by my own stupidity or to keep you all safe. However it happened I blame juice but that doesn’t matter, I met my maker. Now let’s figure out who gets my things!” Garf leans over and pulls a small notebook from under her bed bringing some empty bottles with it as well “first up my wonderful roommate Omen, you get my bike LuLu, you are not to sell her because I put a bomb in her and have no fucking clue where or how to disarm it so.. it should be fine (these is no bomb she just wants to dissuade omen from selling it) and seeing as I put your name with mine on this apartment you have ownership! I know you suck with money so I’ve been putting away some to be used for rent for about a month or two” She flips over to a new page
“Next up is the foxy Cipher… I’m pausing for laughter you better laugh puns are hard. Anyway Cipher you get my handgun ‘Queen’ She pulls Queen from the hoodies pocket and cradles it as she looks to the camera Queen is very important to me because this handgun is what killed me the first time. I’ve kept it to in some strange way extend how much time I have left in life, you can keep it on a shelf or use it how you see fit. In addition to Queen you get my cyberdeck”
She tosses the book aside “Now Net, listen up. If you have my body you are allowed to gut me for parts and Cyberware, if I was able to get the borgware I would say use that on yourself. Nothing wrong with bulking up more!” She flexed her muscles showing that even with her small frame she did have some as she laughed “now onto tor-“ The video flickers and tears before resuming with Garf putting her guitar
“And finally Emrick, assuming I remembered and showed you all the stuff that happened in Vegas with L.V.E, I hope you got a wonderful story out of it, and for your efforts I want to leave you my jacket and the rest of my things. And first dibs on anything people don’t want slash don’t need if their died”
Her smile seemed to fade “I don’t like the thought of outliving teammates…but it’s reality I guess. Life is nothing but piss and bad sex then ya die”
We have a few minutes after the video finishes, and Net tries to find a cigarette and has none. He asks for a hit from Emerick’s vape and suddenly remembers that Emerick doesn’t smoke nicotine, coughing as he regains himself.
Net’s Neighborhood
The AV lands and everyone around us is scrambling due to the emergency situation. Of all people to show up at this time, Mamá Rosa shows up. She immediately starts laying into Net in a worried fashion, pointing out his missing hand. She starts questioning him and then starts crying. She manages to calm down and eventually makes her way back to her house. He reaches up to rub the bridge of his nose, but does so with his missing hand, and recalls his missing hand.
After, Trash Tablet and his uncle walk up to us. They start talking about what’s going on, then they say for all of us to go with them. We are taken to Net’s uncle’s house - the headquarters of the gang. We go into a secure room and start talking over everything that’s happened.
No Longer Garf (Costco Hotdog)
When Garf had pulled the pins out of the grenades and sacrificed herself, as her thoughts started to drift off and as she fell into the sweet embrace of death knowing that she sacrificed herself for the safety and well-being of those she cared for, she feels the world around her start distorting. Nothing about it is natural - it feels very simulated.
She eventually comes to a point where she shock jumps herself and she sees herself laying on a BD chair. She looks around and the place looks very high-tech. All of the tech is very new and things she hasn’t seen before, and as she’s looking around, the door opens up and someone walks in. They’re much larger and they come closer to her and eventually the light hits well enough for her to make out who it is.
It’s Ogre.
Following shortly behind him is Juice. Juice has significantly more high tech fashion than when she last saw him. In fact, Juice looks quite a bit older than she recalls him. He’s still moving around pretty well despite his age. He looks at her and leans in very close, staring into her eyes, and says: “This is what happens to those who fail to do a job. Now what was that you said about being a toy to torture and kill for me?”