Road Rage: Drive Angry

Road Rage is the newest member of the team, and I’ve worked with him for a whole two runs now. And one of those was our longest single run to date, so that has to count for something. I figured it was about time to throw together my own thoughts on him and what he does and the like. He's also going a long way towards reinforcing the 'unconventional' nature of our team; still no Sam or Decker or whatever else, but now we're double-dipping on the adepts.

First up, Road Rage is an ex-pat Yank who wound up Down Under With very little to his name at all. I haven't really probed where he's from (When you’re Australian, "Yank" could mean the UCAS or CAS or CFS. Or possibly even the NAN if you were really stretching it. Hell, you could even mean Ares Macrotechnology) why he ended up here, as I figure it's a sore spot and not something that I'm not going to poke until he's ready to talk about it. Of course, that means it could come back to kill us, but hey. That's what being a Runner's all about, right?

Life on the Coathanger

I’ve mentioned the Bridge before and it's already factored into one of our runs, so I might as well talk a bit more about it. It's a key part of the Sydney Shadow Community landscape while also being the city council's single biggest sticking point. It's definitely not the sort of thing you see on the tourist ads either, and for a good reason.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge copped it pretty bad in the first mana Storm. it suffered severe structural damage and had to be closed for a long-term repair project. Unfortunately, the resulting abandonment of Sydney and the entire country turning feral resulted in a massive influx of poor and desperate refugees from not just the country but even the outer parts of the city. They wound up funneling through the 'controlled areas of North Sydney and the CBD and squatting en-masse on the then abandoned bridge. Sure it was a creaky mess that could have fallen down at any moment, but it wasn’t like they had anywhere else to go.

VBas: Hobo with a Shotgun

So I've talked about how unconventional our team are. We have no Sam, for starters. And we have a mage who likes to surf and punch sharks. And we have a Face who is an articulate, well dressed, pacifist troll. It should probably come as no surprise by now that our Matrix support also doesn't follow the stereotypes.

VBas (or VB for short, not to be confused with awful cat-piss tasting beer) is our Matrix support, doing all the things you want out of them. Find data, look for info, mess with enemy security and electronics, shut down cameras, screw with their equipment and all that sort of fancy stuff. (As opposed to me who mainly uses the Matrix for 'run drones' and 'get drones to shoot stuff'). What makes VB so very different is how he does it. Rather than being a Decker, he's a full-blown Technomancer. And, to make it even more crazy, he's of a rather specific type.

Mo: Trollface

So remembering what I was saying about non-traditional teams? Yeah, even when we do have one 'traditional' role, it's filled in a most unexpected way. Not saying it's bad, it's just different, that's all.

Many teams have a 'face', the guy who's job is to be the frontman of the team, He handles the meetings, negotiations and the business end of the job. He's the guy who tries to get the best deal out of Mister Macquarie, while also doing his best to convince the guy not to tool you over. He's a key part of the legwork phase of a run, meeting people, playing nice with them and trying to play them for a bit of key info that could make the difference between life and death. Finally, a good face can talk you out of a bad situation, using their charm and wit and silver tongue to suggest that it's in everyone's best interests if we don’t try to kill each other,

Orca: Punch the Shark

As a runner, you generally only work alone if you're the best thing in the universe or a right burke. Since I’m neither, I have a team of sorts that I run with. They're pretty damned eclectic and don't follow a lot of your standard Runner team "rules" (Everyone had a Sam, a Decker and a Shaman/Mage, right?. We don't have two of those and the third is an interesting case) so we have to do a lot of our stuff through non-traditional means. For example, I’m the team's "big gun" even though I'm not there in person like a Sam would be.

Orca's our magic. How she does that is pretty interesting, even if I don't pretend to have a clue about how it all works. What it means, however, is that she can do a lot of interesting things and definitely is not someone that you can immediately figure how she's going to do it.

Welcome to Post-Apocalyptic Sydney

Flag of the semi-autonomous corporate enclave of Sydney

I figured that while I’m explaining things, I should spill out a few key facts about Sydney and what it's like to Run there. Calling it different would be an understatement.

The first thing you need to understand is that Sydney is sort of kind of but not quite a part of the Republic of Australia, except for those times that it is. Strictly speaking, it's not even a part of the state of New South Wales any more either. That's a rather complicated story, and is a big part of the 'different' that I mentioned above. You see, Sydney is ground zero for a massive, semi-permanent Mana Storm. It fluctuates in strength and intensity, and some days it's almost normal, but the point is that it's there pretty much all time. The storms are massively disruptive and incredibly damaging, and have gone a long way to the city's current state.

Trucks, Drones, Guns and other essentials

So I've mentioned that I am a Rigger. It's a very tech-intensive role, which suits me just fine. I enjoy working with machinery, and have done ever since I was big enough to wave a wrench at something. So there's a lot of tools that I use in my job as a Runner.

I appreciate quality in my equipment. There's no sense in buying something because it's cheap if you know it's going to break down when you need it most. Sure, some piece of Azzie crap drone might be half the price, but you're gonna hate yourself for forking out when it chucks a digital sicko the middle of a fight or begins chundering up parts when you need it most. So I'm willing to pay a little more for something that's reliable and not going to explode just because it bumped a Wombat or something. (Actually that’s a lie. You hit a Wombat and you will notice it, no matter what)

Who I am and what I do

Right, let's start with the basics, shall we?

This is me (and my truck)

My Street Name is Rev. You don't get to know my real name, sorry. Personal privacy and committing blatantly illegal acts and all that. I am a twenty-eight(ish) year old female human, with fair skin, blue eyes and ginger hair. I live (and for now, work) in the city of Sydney which is kind of sort of but not quite a part of the Republic of Australia. More on that to come. What makes me really interesting is what I actually do.

I am what's known as a Shadowrunner. I'm a part of the massive, illegal industry that serves as the soldiers in the quiet war between the megacorporations, the Governments and whoever else is willing to couch up the quid to have somebody do something to their rivals. I'm paid to do dirty deeds in a way that is deniable and does not trace back to the source, usually by people who prefer not to be indentified themselves. My employer, no matter who they are or who they work for, will usually go by the name of Mister Macquarie (Note to Americans reading this: What you call Mr Johnson). Even if they're a Ms, or whatever else.

Unlike other runners my job is not to stand up and fight; well, sort of. I'm what's known as a Rigger, somebody who uses cyberware and other equipment to control vehicles and drones as if they were an extension of their own body. I can drive anything that I can connect to, and do what no normal driver could do in the process. There's no reaction times, no hand-eye coordination; I drive at the speed of thought

Vehicles and Drones are the tools of the trade for me. You need something delivered in a hurry? I'm your Sheila. You need a fast getaway? I can be gone before the Corp Cops even know what's happened. You need a small army of backup? I have a fleet of drones that can bring more firepower to a fight then blowflies at a barbie. And I can do all this without being anywhere near what I’m doing at the time. I can control my vehicles and drones through the matrix or by jumping into them and sizing direct control or whatever else. I could be in the passenger seat next to you, I could be around the block or I could be on the other side of the city. Isn't technology bloody awesome?

This is also me (But no truck)

So that's a bit about me. If you’re lucky I’ll be the best driver/drone swarm/whatever the hell else you need you can get. Otherwise, you had better start running from the bloody drones and get out of my way