Episode Zero: Meet and Greet

Stardate 44475.1, 3rd of Rand 292 (June 23, 2367)

Night has sent out invitations to meet in The Asylum about a job. DJ Cutoff Frequency is spinning icewave. Night’s at a side booth, sipping a half-pint of lager. Slowly. Carbide arrived early to scope out the club. Paragon did as well, and hacked in, but found nothing of interest beyond good-enough security and standard club books. Virago, new in town, was also early, and checked out their first-ever nightclub. Starscream, of course, arranged to be last to arrive.

Carbide is the first to approach Night, as they’ve crossed paths before. She’s glad to be working with him, and they settle into easygoing “do you know”s. He’s recording the meet, but not announcing the fact.

Paragon wanders over, takes a seat, and puts Dino on the table. He’s part of the meeting too! Night squees, and seeing it’s okay, gives Dino skritchies. Paragon sought out Night, as the 4I has a rep as an employer who appreciates talent and non-lethality. Also, she might have deduced what the job is going to be, based on hacking Night’s systems.

Virago stops gawking and heads over, making a small bow to Night before sitting down. Starscream then bounces in, hair shining, slurping a boba tea, strikes a pose, and takes a seat. Carbide gives her a techie once-over. Night admits to having been a huge Happy Aura fan, judging that she’d score some points with Starscream for that, but being serious and a little blushy about it. Paragon mentions that she used to be close to someone who was a fan, but they weren’t able to convert her. After a moment, Virago realizes, “Oh! You’re a musician!” Starscream is baffled – there are people who don’t recognize her? Carbide doesn’t either, but he’s an Old, and he knows how to be chill about such things.

Night explains the standard rule on her jobs: she takes a 25% cut. Ten of that is for her, the rest goes to the local Party fund. She makes a pitch for party membership, and its benefits: “Anybody want to join the long fight for freedom and justice?” Carbide chuckles and notes, “If I let you sign me up, Iso would kick my ass. He’s been trying to get me to sign longer than you’ve been alive.”

Night asks Virago about their sov status. They reply that they’re sov-less now. Night strongly warns them to sign with somebody. They agree to go 4I sov, and Night prints them out a passport. Whew.

She starts to describe the job, when they hear the crack of a sniper rifle, twice. Then the doors crash open, and a boostergang pours in. Starscream spots all four gangers immediately, but has no clue who they are. Night and Carbide recognize the Iron Sights, a fashy gang.

The leader fires shots into the ceiling, then calls out, “Empty your pockets, drop your bags and glasses, back up. Any bolshies in the house? Nothing to fear, I just have some questions about dialectical materialism.” A few people drop their stuff and back up.

The DJ looks up, and in a soft, flat voice, says “Don’t crimp my flow” and winks at a huge Solo in the front row of the dancefloor. Alas, he doesn’t notice his idol’s move, as he’s already pushing through the crowd into optimal firing range. “Can’t a choomer listen to some tunes in peace?” He kicks off the firefight with a solid shot to the lieutenant.

Virago flips the table – nice, solid cover – and ducks behind it. Starscream and Paragon follow suit. Carbide and Night get good shots in on the lieutenant, who fires back ineffectually at the Solo. On his next shot, the Solo takes him out, goes over to the nearest mook, and just gets in his face. The mook takes the hint, drops his piece, and signals to the others to leave. Virago rights the table, and everybody sits back down.

The club owner comes out, talks to the Solo for a moment, and heads over to the table. He knows Night well, and thanks her and her crew for getting involved. They’re comped for the next two weeks. Night tells him to take her share and give it to the Solo instead, and tell him it’s compliments of The Party. He does, and the Solo fires off a jaunty two-finger salute, and turns back to idolizing the DJ.

Everybody’s Agents ping. DJ CUTOFF FREQUENCY LLC tipped each NB15. Starscream texts back, attaching her latest song, with a note “Remix away, make something cool.” The DJ does, and it’s frelling awesome. Starscream takes her video recorder and sets it up in the back of the club, and improvises along with the track, doing some killer work. Paragon grabs the feed and search-engine-optimizes it for max clout. It’s going viral!

Night picks up the briefing again. As she was saying, this isn’t a Party job. She’ll understand if anyone’s not in, but given the stakes – medium risk, high reward – she’s putting together a team anyway. It’s a simple heist for a friend. A minor scion of one of the First Families, Harb Bai, has the best collection of 20th Century superhero comics in known space. Her friend has an offplanet buyer, and wants a team that’ll keep it clean and quiet.

Paragon intimates that she knows the target, but doesn’t go into detail.

Harb has inherited the collection, and it – or at least some of it – is at his home, not the senior family compound – which would be an impossible target. He’s a 28 year old divisional manager, heading the Old Dome branch of the Industrials division (aerosolized obedience drugs, performance enhancers, anti-radiation meds, etc.) of Bai-St. Pierre Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Lifetech Consolidated). Harb’s a party boy, and there’s footage from inside his house that shows that some of the collection is on display.

Get in to The Spire, hit the house when everyone’s out, extract. Any one is worth at least a thousand NB, up to about 2 million for the jewels of the collection. Get what you can, you get paid 40% of sale. Night notes that these would be next to impossible to fence for anyone without specialist and/or offplanet connections, and they’d be too hot to move on planet, really.

She has a map of the gated community, Sunrise Meadows. There’s no actual humans at the gate. You’ll have to get through community security, then his house security. It’s off-the shelf, so it shouldn’t be too bad. Individual pieces might be in a safe, or secured cases.

The team strategizes a bit: the plan is for Starscream to play an exclusive event. Paragon will tailor the pitch to Harb to make it irresistible to him. This’ll get him out of the house. The rest of the team will go in as maintenance workers.

Night tells them that if need kit, make a list, and she’ll probably be able to get it, but will need a day or so of advance notice. The group breaks up. Night goes over to have a word with the Solo who stopped the heist.