Corporation: : The DHC Affair

Second week of holiday time and a game of Corporation at Halesowen Boardgamers. Present were Daniel, John, Ben C and Joe, comprising Division 90 of Eurasian Incorporated. Daniel and Joe the only original members left. John had been captured on Miller-Urey during the Skin Affair, Joe was not present on that Mission, Ben C had been called away at Irkutsk to do an urgent investigation ( from which he sadly did not return – see Obituary on the blog) and Matthew and James had also received secret orders just before they boarded the maglev. Thus, Daniel travelled back to Moscow alone.

Meanwhile, Joe, Ben C and John II ( a clone?) were carrying out a surveillance on a warehouse in the Moscow Underswell. Large quantities of Di-Hydroxy-Cryptonol (DHC), of good quality were circulating in the Underswell, The source was unknown and the EI Department of Social Affairs were concerned that cheap supplies of the drug would undermine their own programme of social care. The Division were assigned to watch the warehouse that was suspected to be the distribution point. Returning to the stake-out, they found a street gang ripping off their equipment…

The journey from Irkutsk to Moscow is a long one, even on a maglev travelling at 480 kph. Daniel had little to do other than watch the entertainment channels and wonder how he was going to explain the loss of two Agents to Colonel Rader. Suddenly his PDA bleeped with an incoming message – it was the Colonel! A priority override Mission – Daniel was to leave the train as it passed through the Underswell and join with the rest of the Division. The warehouse was to be raided and the source of the drugs determined. Information was a priority. He headed forward to speak to the driver; the train conductor stopped him and Daniel found out that not everyone likes Agents. He pulled Rank and ordered that the driver spoke to him. The driver said he could slow the train down in the Underswell but refused to stop due to the risk of hijacking or rocket attack. Daniel reckoned he could jump safely if the train was doing 50 kph, this was slower than the driver liked but Daniel pulled Rank again.

Meanwhile, in the stake-out, a vicious hand-to-hand combat was raging. The Division were not using firearms due to the risk of alerting the targets inside the warehouse, but the gang were proving to be better fighters than anticipated.

A few minutes to go and the train was slowing. Daniel chose his moment and dropped from the train. He missed his footing and fell into the track bed of the ‘up’ line, between the high-tension cables and the field coils. Mindful of the 50,000 volt cables, he carefully climbed out, taking only minor induction burns. Quickly locating a ladder down a support pylon, he smeakered the others, only to be told “ they were a little busy at the moment”. He homed in on the smeaker signal and found the others in the stake-out, surrounded by bodies of gangers. Joe had been hurt badly (?) but John was patching him up using his medical skill.
(GM: Ben ran this part of the Mission, apparently Joe just waded into the midst of them using a longsword).

Daniel took charge of the situation, opposite the stakeout was a semi-ruined warehouse part-built under the maglev line. AV surveillance revealed at least two people in street clothes going through the doors opposite. A plan was hatched; Daniel set up his M50 (aka ‘The Beast’) on it’s tripod and lent John his rocket pistol and light rockets. Joe would impersonate a junkie and go in, followed by Ben, the idea being to take a prisoner. Inside the doors was a long ‘garage’, with a set of burnt-out rooms on the left, two openings on the right covered by thick tarpaulins. At the far end was a beat-up truck (Con 4) and two men in street clothes.
“What do you want?” called one in Russian.
“J.. JU…Js wnt.. D” slurred Joe.
Ben crept in and stood in the shadows.
“You were told never to come here, go to the usual place” said the man, striding towards him.
“Need D… want D”
The man went to hit him across the face, at this point Ben grabbed him from behind. A grapple ensued; the other man ran down, pulling a machine pistol. Ben wrestled the guy outside, the other one followed only to be cut down by Daniel with the Beast. The prisoner managed to escape from Ben and was in turn shot and killed by Daniel. Joe picked up the machine pistol; it was a good quality make.

They all went back inside to investigate the truck; a third man leapt up and fired a shotgun at Daniel at point-blank range, doing mashing damage. Joe took him out in close combat; whilst John used his medical skill to patch up Daniel, Ben and Joe investigated the truck. They found it would start up and was driveable; in the back was a polycrate. John determined that it held traces of DHC. Deciding to go through the tarpaulins, beyond was a large room containing some polycrates, another truck (like the first), a raised office at the far end reached by a stairway and another room under it. To one side was a maglev support pylon going up through the ceiling. Ben took some photos on his PDA. A voice called down from the office: -
“I don’t know who you are, but this has gone far enough. I’m running this little operation to get some retirement money and I don’t appreciate you muscling in. I’m telling you to back off or you’ll get hurt.”
“No, you’ll get hurt”, replied Daniel.
“Just leave will you. What’s wrong with trying to turn a little profit? If you don’t back off, I’ve got friends who WILL hurt you. You sound like a damn Corp stooge”
“We are Agents”, said John.

At this point, the (somewhat inevitable) firefight erupted. Daniel sprayed the office with the Beast, blowing out the plate window. In return the figure in the office levelled a plasma rifle at him, which malfunctioned and exploded(!). Gangers popped up out of cover and opened fire, some using machine pistols and some using shotguns. Ben proved to be a deadly shot with his twin mastered cougars and Joe was using the machine pistol (it was WF manufacture but not chip checked). The gang were going down; even so the Division were taking damage; at least one emergency IV medpack was activated. Then the door to the lower office opened and three men came out, wearing green and black uniforms. One spoke, in a pronounced Texan drawl;
“Seems like our little thing here is over. Now me and my buddies are just going to walk out of here and you’re just going to stand aside and let us, else world o’ hurt coming your way.”
The one on the left pointed a finger at John and whispered “Pow!”. Jon staggered back, this head feeling like it was being crushed. Daniel yelled “ He’s a telepath” and opened upon them, only to find that they were ion shielded. The speaker ran at Joe with impossible speed and cut loose with a flurry of unarmed blows which Joe was barely able to defend against. Ben’s cougars again played a significant part. The telepath ‘Pow’ed’ Daniel for maximum effect and leapt over their heads and out of the door. The other two followed, using some form of freerunning. Dan went after them, but to no avail. The reason for their haste was soon made clear, a few seconds later the entire warehouse exploded in a ball of flame. Everyone but Daniel was caught in the blast; which finished off the gangers.

Some hours later, they reported back to Colonel Rader. He was not pleased that very little information had been gathered; there was a clear indication that the Western Federation were supplying weapons to the gangs and probably were behind the supply of DHC. Out of a potential twelve sources of information, not one was taken. It was apparent that there was an overuse of firepower on the mission, with a tendency to shoot first and hang the consequences. Accordingly, the use of heavy weapons on future Missions would be monitored. Daniel’s application for Mastered Weapons training for the M50 was refused.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------