Written by Peter Weilnböck
Published on: 2026-01-29
Session 7: A new friend and a tip to the butchers.
Discord sent me a message that he has some ideas of how to modify the Steel Lynx and that I should bring it over in the morning. I wonder what that is about.
Another message, this time from Jace. We should pick someone up at the Whiskey at the Crossroads. Apparently the Mafia is worried about the rats as well, because this guy should be able to obliterate a nest if necessary. And so we should bring him with us, in case we find a rat nest that is responsible for vanishing people. What drek did we get into?
So, Discords idea is to mount some tuning forks on the Steel Lynx. To somehow use with Silencer?
No idea what the drek he thinks that he can achieve with that, but since it should not impede the functionality of the Steel Lynx, I see no problem with that. Might look a bit funky.
Looking at the inside of the van, it might get a bit crowded when we load the additional passenger. Discord is not the smallest, the Steel Lynx also takes up quite a bit of room. And while Jace and Romeo are both quite slender, they still need a seat each.
Oh, he’s a charmer. That Omae greeted with a grunt, obviously disappointed in seeing elfs. Racist fuck. Kind of out of place, as he stood there in full body armor, an armord bag in his hand and a fragging grenade launcher slung over his shoulder. No doubt the military style pouches hold other such niceties as that. I mean fragging who carries a fragging grenade launcher as his only weapon? Painted it in rainbowcolours too, because that is fragging normal.
Oh well. We’ll probably just have him with us for that run. And since this is basically a favour for the Familia I am pretty sure it will be worth it in the long run.
For some reason Discord decided to roll out his life story in front of this Omae. The rats I understood. I also showed the video to him and everything. But that he had his awakening there? Drek, he hadn’t told me that before! And there was really no need to brag about the blood spirit. Did he want to look good in front of the halfer? I did not show any footage of that. Not that it matters too much since they also told him that the blood spirit wiped out the building and it has not been long since the TFS case was on the news. So even if I don’t trust that squat, he now has something on us.
Did I already mention that his name is “Thalmak Silverbeard”? Like out of a third class fantasy trid.
Well, lets get rid of the rats, I guess.
Damn it. Just as we were starting to drive of, Discord got another message from Cheeks. Another of his chummers - Bob - got taken last night. Seems like we need to find a more solid lead than to hope that the rats are responsible…
Jace seems to think that Petey knows more than we got out of him the first time. Maybe it’s worth a try?
Found Petey again. This time Jace and Discord helped by spouting some stuff about his usual routes and the lay of the land in the barrens, but in the end it was of course Romeo who found him again. And this time it also was Romeo talking to him.
You would not believe it: that grey already knew that Bob had been taken. It started out as cryptic as the first time, but this time Romeo was able to extract some details from him. Not stopping his staggering along the road with the gutted, sometimes burned out vehicles Petey told us that Bob had been taken by an Ork and two Humans, with a bunch of tats.
Jace clearly did not like the sound of that. I heard him mumbling about “An orc? So definetly not Humanis then…“. He also asked Petey to draw the tats, and what clearly looked like a single, random squiggly line to me seemed to make sense to Jace. The follow up question if they had been asian was confirmed by Petey. How did he get that from a squiggly line? No idea.
In any case, they seemed to have taken them to the Drylands, not too far from Glow City. Fun times. Guess we are going there now. Everyone has their radiation shielding? No? Oh goody.
While Jace was busy with his link, Thalmak had nothing better to do than to seize him up. And then he accused him that he did not have any battle scars! I swear, if he makes a fight break out INSIDE Kaori, I will personally run him over.
Luckily in this case Jace just said that he knows how to dodge. And that he has a good medic. Seemed to blush a bit on the second remark. Especially when Romeo mentions that the pretty nurse is very thorough. Maybe it is reciprocated then. Good for Jace. Discord also seemes to know something, based on his smile.
After reaching the area Thalmak is useful for the first time. He sets up a kind of search grid that I should drive. Apparently this is “standard operating proceedure” in such cases. Seems this squat is ex military. Might explain but not excuse his grumpiness. Maybe its just his age though…
After driving around for quite some time we finally get a break. A norm and a tusk are dragging an orc boy along in the paralell streat. Discord saw it and immidiately jumped out of the car and ran down the side alley towards them. Jace and Romeo jumped out at the next side alley to cut off their retreat, while I drive around the block to get there. Grumpy is with me. Seems to not want to be of help just yet. Not being paid for that or something.
Well, well, well. Maybe there is a heart inside that grumpy old squat deep underneath the full body armor. When prompted if someone can help the ork boy, he grumbled something about not being a complete asshole, got out of the car and quickly revived the boy. Romeos question if he could also have some of the chemicals that had this rousing quality was just met with disdain again though.
But I forgot to mention: Apparently Jace and Romeo had been to slow. Or Discord to quick. In any case the tusk was unconscious and the norm dead. Silencer bloodid a bit.
With the tusk alive, I guess we have a more solid lead now. And Romeo can take a crack at their links. Jace happily had already taken their weapons and together with Discord tied up the tusk. Jace’s knots are a lot more… thorough(?) elaborate(?) than Discords though. I guess this is another glimps into his private life. Lucky nurse, I guess?
Thalmak decides to call up one of his contacts (belitteling us and telling us that he will now show us how such things are done while doing so), and finds out that it has gotten a lot easier to get orc organs on the black market for those in need. Tasteful.
Romeo calls up his detective chum to ask about the players in organ legging. The big boy is Tamanous. They seem to have a rather large smuggling operation in addition to their legitimate business. In Seattle they are being supplied by two gangs: the 167s and the Disassemblers. And then there is the Komun’go ring, as a bit of a smaller fish in the same pond. Since our friendly neighbourhood kidnappers were asian and with a lot of asian looking tatoos, we assume that they belong to the Komun’go ring. Drek. Having pissed of the Vory v Zakone already, I don’t need to be on the bad side of a second syndicate. The Seoulpa rings also do seem to handle people that get in their way rather quickly. Or they tend to quickly handle them quite slowly, if you catch my drift. Drek, drek, drek.
We had brought the boy home and Romeo had gotten a location out of the links. We had just scooped out the place, and Discord mentioned that he wanted to tell this at the gang meet tomorrow, when an orc was dragged out of one large door through the street and into another door. Apparently Bob is still alive. Or at least being dragged around… So we are going in then. At least we can know that, if we fail and die, our organs might safe someones life. Fragging Drek.
So, we have a plan. Romeo is the Distraction: He is knocking at the door that Bob was dragged out of, and will try to gab their ears off. Just in case, I will cover him with the Steel Lynx.
In the mean time the others will make their silent entry through a third large entry on the other side of the building. Two omaes are standing there on their smoking break, but Jace and Discord should be able to handle them quietly. Oh, and Mr. Gumpy is going with them as well. Jace had confirmed with Miri that they will pay him even though the vermin to be exterminated is of a less savoury flavour then the 4 legged squeaky kind. Of course I will support team backdoor as well, in my capacity of infiltrator in the fly spy.
Thehe, team backdoor. Jace and his pretty nurse would probably approve of that.
So far so good. Jace slotted one of the smokers with a silenced burst, and hit the other as well. Discord layed him out before he could drop is smoke, let alone give alarm.
We had not fully thought this through though, since our lock picker was on the other door, fruitlessly knocking. Luckily Thalmak also has some tricks up his sleave. No, he did not hack the door, he simply took out the whole locking mechanism with a strip of thermite. Quiet enough and hella wiz. Like “Full Assault Black Ops”, which is almost as good as “Resurrection Breach”. Could even be in “Resurrection Breach”. More “Full Assault Black Ops” vibes though. In any case: wiz. Maybe Thalmak does have his ups.
Corridor was empty, but covered by surveilance cameras. Romeo paused his knocking to hack it remotely. Lucky that the spider did not hardwire it, but simply left it on the matrix.
He then changed to the other large door on his side, because the corridor almost leads to it, after some bends, with maybe another room or two inbetween. We will try to meet him in the building then.
Laughter behind one door, some electronic hum behind another. Thalmak wants to boobytrap the door with the laughter, but Jace does not want to be blown up because he is standing too close to the boobytraped door.
Suddenly a buzz like from a saw behind a door a bit deeper down the corridor, just before the second corner. They run up to it, Discord tries to open it. Locked. Romeo is just cracking the entrance door on his side. So Discord shoots it open with his shotgun. I guess quiet is over now. Inside a guy in a white coat was just starting to cut opens Bobs sternum. The alarm rings. And from somewhere a growl.
A new player has joined and brought a bit of a different team dynamic to the group. I am looking forward to see where it leads.
You can read a different perspective in my spouses brillian write up.