002: National Myth

**"All your glorious battles, what did they amount to, what did they prove?"**

***- National Myth,* by AGAINST ME!**

## Session Summary

Our session opens with a showdown at high noon...

On one side, a group of edgerunners who had a job to do; on the other, eight members of 6th Street who now held captive their prize. The heifer that the edgerunners had long tracked was here, taken by a group of men who clearly intended on making a meal of their would be prize. Bit Chaos, Fridge, K2, Nova, and Smoke all did what they did best; their fucking job. Fridge set himself up as a sniper from a nearby cherry-picker. K2 and Smoke took down the first two guards. Smoke also hacked the personal security system that the 6ers seemed to be relying on. Nova and Bit Chaos moved in raid the front door.

There was a firefight!

While Fridge offered cover fire, Smoke hacked the cyberware (mostly optics and smart guns) of the 6ers. Unfortunately, Fridge in all the chaos shot K2 at one point, but made up for it by blowing a hole in the house with an incendiary grenade. K2 noticed that the heifer was being guarded in the backyard, and the team moved in to claim it. Trying to use the smoke as a means of covering her motions, Bit Chaos flipped over one of the bodies of the 6ers (a man who K2 had just bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe) but revealed her location to four enemies with her flourishing acrobatics. Miraculously, she evaded all four of their shots with a drama and panache that would be remembered. Nova made quick work of sweeping into a window to enter the building, while K2 and Smoke pressed their entrance into the building.

Sadly, it would not be long before K2 and Bit Chaos would be inflicted serious injuries; K2 to their gut, and Bit to her arm. Nova continued to press her attacks, keeping the 6ers from focusing too heavily on her wounded teammate, while Smoke hacked their bioware to stabilize the both of them. And just as soon as it started, it finished.

As the dust cleared, Smoke took off his belt to use it as a makeshift guide for the heifer. The group led the beast back to the courier truck, and Fridge drove the truck while Nova followed in the car, each carrying the rest of the party with them. They immediately make their way to North Oak, where they brought the heifer to the address they were given. Fridge, Nova, and Bit Chaos stayed with the car (partially to guard it, partially to rest from injuries, and partially to call Sonny to come and get the courier truck, now a spoil of war.) Smoke and K2 led the heifer into the backyard and they were instructed, where they soon realized that this was not the house of Caspian, but probably the house of someone who was hosting him: Vivian Ellis an A-List actress and singer who met her guests with a lazy smile from her sunbathing near her pool.

It was very clear that the heifer was there to be served as part of a meal of some kind, ironically the same fate that the 6ers had meant for the creature. Smoke and K2 decided to leave the creature to her fate, which seemed to be to become a meal for a six-year-old named "Jerry."

Leaving North Oak, Nova drove K2 and Bit Chaos to a ripperdoc that had come recommended by Fagin at Smoke's request. The group was introduced to Doc Hazzard, a ripperdoc operating out of Wellsprings, Heywood. He cordially and professionally worked on the injured people, while at the same time offering upgrade to their bodies. K2 took Hazzard up on the offer of an improved liver, while Bit Chaos declined. While waiting for them to recover, Fridge napped in the corner while Nova and Smoke played with an antique set of playing cards, betting their fortunes for personal stories.

Shortly after leaving the ripperdoc's, Fagin contacted the group with their payment, 1500 eddies, and an official invitation to gain entrance to Afterlife, a desireably club and bar for edgerunners and fixers, run by the illustrious Rogue Amendiares, This was cause for celebration, a true sign that they had "made it" and that their names were starting to be recognized among the elite of Night City. They opted to part ways for a few hours to get cleaned up and meet back up again at Afterlife, the newest members on "The List." Their celebration, however, would be short-lived.

As they all arrived outside the Afterlife, there was a noticeable change in the air. All at once, all of the media monitors in the neighborhood, regardless of corporate or media affiliation, went dark, and the large mega-screens that loomed over the city filled with the figure of Johnny Silverhand. Right away there was a certain amount of panic among the crowd, though there was certainly a very visceral reaction from Smoke, who collapsed into Bit Chaos' arms. Smoke, however, worked quickly, and traced the source of the code to a nearby datanode. There, she was met with a code that was complicated and abstract, but more importantly, the weilder of the code looked back...

The Johnny on the screen had a message for Night City:

> "Wake up, Night City! If you know me, then you know why I am here! I ain't dead yet, motherfuckers! It's time to send a message to the fat pigs at the top of the food chain, shitting on all of you in the street below. Shake shit up by shutting shit down! If you want me, come and find me...
>
>

> Have fun out there."
>
>

As his words echoed over the city, an EMP bomb went off a mere block away from Afterlife. It was clear to see what the intention was: chaos. And it worked. Some people struck by the EMP with cyberware that their lives depended on were dead in moments. The majority of cyberware in the blast zone, though, only temporarily shut down. The buildings, though, with all their commercialism and security, went dark, and the people of the district started to work quickly, breaking into businesses and homes. Smoke shouted out a threat to the open air: "You're fucking ***dead***, Bitch," before her own cyberware was rezzed and she fell unconscious, bleeding from the nose.

Standing on the sidewalk in the chaos was Rogue Amendiares, looking at her neighborhood. She locked eyes with the group, some of the only people on the street not fleeing, fighting, or looting, and ordered them to get inside the Afterlife. The group was placed in a booth before the doors were locked behind them, and instructed to stay put by the Queen of Afterlife herself, before Rogue disappeared back out onto the streets...