Section 9: Remaining on Misty {Baby Blue and Headstone)

[Charybdis Richelle]

Wednesday, June 11, 2059

{GM}

Those who remain on the plane look around at each other. They have little to do other than talk or sleep.

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

Headstone let's out a long sigh once everyone has left.
''Time for me to step down once this run is over, chummer'' Headstone says as he sits down next to BB.
''Make room for whoever is willing to take the reigns. I'm simply not the right person to lead them, drek happens. Best to accept it over continuing to beat a dead horse.
I will let everyone know once the run is over.''

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue gives Headstone a long look, her face impassive. "And who would take your place? Pam? She won't. Too wedded to the Matrix for something as meatspace heavy as leading. And even if she were willing, we need someone on the ground during runs, and she can't come with us. Skye? No. Tez? Running's a side thing for her. Or maybe her job's a side thing. Not sure, but either way she's got too much else going on. Plus, the girl's sensitive to the slightest hint of a slight. No way she can handle leadership. Biter? Hard for me to say really, but I don't think he'd take it. Get the vibe he's happiest and best when someone else is telling him where to shoot. Revs? He's got the headspace for it I think, and folks like him. But he's just doing it to help his family business. It's a side thing for him. Plus, much like Pam, during the run itself he'll be in the van. He won't be on the ground, and won't have a good sense of what's going on. Pacman? Maybe. Hard to get a read on him, but I don't trust his idealism. Cid? We've known him a day, and he's got the same thin-skinned problem as Tez. Me? Absolutely not."

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

Either you or Revs would be good choices. I already know Revs doesn't want it. Pacman wouldn't be a good choice. His mind is on another planet all the time. I mean, he just missed an entire shift of guard duty, sitting distracted somewhere else. To give an example.

Thing is, they have no problem attacking each other over the slightest transgression. The ones who can save their hoops when it matters.
However, when it comes to outsiders, they seem to adore them. Sure, I might be a bit too antagonistic to them, but the more I see them idolize others, the harder I rail against it. They fail to realize that this submissive attitude makes Gumberoo look like an easily manipulable group of push-overs.
For some reason, there seems to be a complete lack of pride in who they are. If I can't inspire them even a little bit, I shouldn't be leading them either

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue's expression doesn't flicker. "You're right that the team deserves someone whose here all the time. Pacman isn't. I'm not. I had a fit during two key moments of the run. Revs won't be here all the time either. During the run itself he'll be in the van, where he should be. Now, only real leadership I know is from a guy who enforced it with an ottoman, a belt for the kids, and a strap for the adults..."

Baby Blue pauses. Her eyes fog. She grabs Headstone's wrist and squeezes. Her gaze sharpens. "But I think you need to lay down some ground rules after this run. No questioning each other's decisions mid-run. You got a problem with a fellow Gumberoo? You take it up with them after the run. No deviating from the plan until it's gone sideways. Then you deviate until the boss gives orders. Then you follow them. Cid's right we shouldn't be voting mid-run neither. You make the call. You want input? You ask. We give it. Maybe argue a little bit if we got the luxury of time. But then you decide, and your word is final. Someone refuses to follow these rules? They're grounded for the next run. That includes not getting a share of the payment. Someone keeps breaking the rules? They're off the team."

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

Headstone takes in everything BB said. Unlike how he is with to the outside world, with BB he actually tends to listen when she gives him advice.
He heavily frowns as he takes his time thinking about it.
''The thing is. I really wanted to get away from our old days and do not want to turn back in how the gangs used to run things.
It is why I thought everyone's input should be valued at all times. It's not like I didn't listen when Pandora and El Cid mentioned this, but they never saw what I saw of those going down that path.
I don't ever want to turn into those dreks who think they are all that. While the majority was definitely just banter from my end, it is what I keep seeing in the words of the Ace's and other so called professionals in this world. Real runners don't have to shout it from the rooftops. Whenever I see them talk down to us, all I see are our old gang leaders. I makes them so punchable, you know.

But yes, this clearly isn't working either.
If they cannot even follow a few sentences summing up hours of prep work, then they aren't cut out for this work. It is not fair to those who put in the work getting all the information and making a plan of execution.

You are right. All of it. Once this run is over, things are going to change drastically.
I will give the crew one last important decision to make, after that, the decision stays and drekking voting time is over.
They can either vote me out or this is how we move forward from here on out.''

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

"Yeah. Yeah I hear you." Baby Blue's eyes fog over for a long moment. She shakes her head and takes a deep breath. "God, they're so bad today. But listen. I think it's good you're worried. It'll help keep you honest. And you can let us bicker and vote and argue all we want between runs. Just during runs you gotta be a tyrant. Besides, at the end of the day, people can just walk away. You can't walk away from a gang."

Baby Blue rolls her shoulders, a hint of pain flickering across her face. Her fingers whiten as they clench her knees. "And that makes all the difference."

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

Headstone nods
''I rather 'want' to be called out for the drek I am outside a run. Keeps me grounded, but future runs cannot be hijacked anymore by bickering.
Even during prep work, I don't mind it that much, but once the run starts, it's go time. We'll see if the crew is ready to commit, but it is going to be a take it or leave it offer''

Headstone's facial expression turns more mellow, having made his decision on how to proceed further after the run.
''On another note, since we have time to kill. I have some ideas on how to deal with our 'being undergeared' issue. Care to hear it?'' Headstone asks.

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue nods. "I would."

Her eyes flick about the room, and all the gear scattered about the cabin. One side of her mouth quirks in the hint of a smile. "Convince Basil to take off now, and leave everyone else behind?"

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

Headstone chuckles at that.
"Now, if you really wanted to make a move to improve your life, instead of delivering Ace, we should sell him. The man's cyberware is worth more nuyen than a local bank holds," he says with a grin. "Luckily for him, we have principles and character. But damn, it would’ve been a nice payday."
He continues in a more serious tone "But instead of dreaming about riches we’ll never see, let’s talk about something actually achievable" he says as he starts whispering in case someone else is eavesdropping.

"For this run, we’re each getting 10k, or 5k if it drags on too long, right? Now, there’s some basic runner’s gear that would seriously boost our efficiency. And the costs? We’re talking 50k just for the essentials.
Wired reflexes? 55k. Maglock passkey? 40k. A decent van? 65k.

At this rate, we’d need to grind out another four to eight runs just to afford the basics for shadowrunning and that’s before rent and other expenses."

He glances around the room making sure Basil hasn’t returned yet.
"So what if we take a shortcut? Instead of slogging these run after run, we go straight to the source. Hit a few production factories for ourselves. A night or two of well-planned theft before diving back into shadowrunning. We become twice as efficient, allowing us to take on better jobs. And with better jobs? Better pay." Headstone explains wondering if BB sees something in this plan or dismisses it outright.

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue looks thoughtful. She stands up and starts to pace as she thinks. "Extra runs are risky, and these won't have medical bills to cover any injuries, or even a payment to fall back on. But it means fewer J-driven runs undergeared, and we can abandon our gathering expeditions without any damage to our reputation. So we could pull out immediately if things get hot. We'd need someone to help wipe the van. I'm sure it'd be registered somewhere, maybe even have a tracer. Probably cheaper than just buying one though? Might need to talk to Revs' person about that. Don't know if any of the other stuff would have tracers on them. That could be a problem. Probably couldn't get any wetwork or cyberware stuff. Even if we had the raw materials, we'd need someone to install it. Surgeons worth using might not be willing to put in whatever crap we gave them. Might be worried it'd damage their reputation."

"Would definitely want to do it quick, while we got the money to cover any medical costs," says Baby Blue. "I definitely think it merits serious thought. We'd want to make a list of the stuff we need, their expenses, figure which ones are expensive enough to be worth stealing. Figure out which of those it's actually practical to steal, figure out what kind of cleaning we'd need to do after. But even if the answer is just 'a van,' it'd be huge."

Baby Blue taps her chin. "We'd probably want to do something simple to make sure it looks like a standard run too. I don't fully know why corps tolerate all this shadowrunning, but I suspect a big part is fear of escalation. A straight up fight with another corp would be bad for business, so they tolerate it. But we'd be stealing stuff that any corp could buy for the tenth of the cost of hiring shadowrunners. What if they suspected we weren't working for another corp? Might not hold back then. But that could be as simple as planting a virus on a computer system. Probably doesn't even really have to *do* anything. Let the corp pat themselves on the back for containing it, or laughing at our stupid misfire or whatever."

Baby Blue frowns. "Actually, that is something concerning to me. Why don't more teams do this? Or are they all made up of trust fund babies with lots of cash on hand? I think we'd want to do a little bit of digging in Shadowrun corners. Find out if this is a really bad idea for some reason or another."

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

"Corps tolerating us?

Chummer, we’re not some nuisance they put up with, we’re part of their business model. The corps already won. If they wanted us gone, poof, we’d be gone. They don’t tolerate shadowrunners. They want us to exist.
Hell, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the first runner crew was created by a corp. Then, once the others saw the benefits, they all jumped on board. We do the dirty work, keep their names clean. That’s what they view as our entire endgame for our purpose of existing.

Now, as for why more runners don’t do what I’m suggesting? My guess is three reasons.

First, a serious Johnson makes themselves invaluable. They don’t just point at a store window and say, steal that for me; I’ll give you a cut. Why would we even bother with them if that’s all they did? A real Johnson gives us intel we’d never get otherwise. Or they have a buyer lined up for the goods we can’t fence ourselves. That’s their value.
And as much as they screw us over, Johnsons need their reputation intact. Word gets out when one pulls a stunt like ours did. The next crew will be on guard. It’s a bad move on their part. Sure, they all leave out details; it’s part of the game, but this? This was reckless. Not that it will help us, but once word gets out. Our Johnsson's rep is going to take a hit.
That’s why a good Johnson is still worth working with. Once we’ve got the basics covered, we should get back in the game. Otherwise, we’ll waste years scraping by on the bottom-tier jobs they throw to desperate runners.

Second, there’s no rep to be gained in doing this ourselves. In fact, some might even see it as a bad precedent. You think someone like Ace wants runners to start thinking independently? Drek no.
They want shadowrunners to believe this is just how the world works. Tell them they’re special, real tier-one professionals. Give them a gold star for playing the game right. Just don’t go doing things without giving the right people their cut, you hear?
So when you ask around, you’ll always hear the same thing: don’t do it. But that’s just because no one’s ever taught them differently.

Third, it’s dangerous. No intel, no inside help; we’d be figuring everything out from scratch. Sound familiar? Yeah, just like this run.
That’s why it shouldn’t be a habit. My chummer, Bullet? He’s the living embodiment of the thieving lifestyle. Knows exactly what to steal and exactly how long he’d sit in jail if caught.
I’ve asked him about this kind of job over and over, hoping I can convince him to join us and he always says the same thing:
Shadowrunning is for people who want to die young. Thievery is steady work.
And this is coming from a guy who’s been in and out of jail more times than I can count.
But make no mistake, he’d never steal something this expensive. Not alone.

So yeah, those are three reasons why most teams don’t do it.

But I’m just saying, thinking like that? That’s a wageslave’s mindset. Just because others don’t do it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t."

[Charybdis Richelle]

He glances around the room making sure Basil hasn’t returned yet.

{GM}

Basil has not returned inside the plane. Headstone can hear him, vaguely through the window, not enough to understand but enough to pick out his English accent, to someone near the nose of the plane as he goes about his maintenance check.

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue's eyebrow twitches, and her lips quirk. "People don't go headbutting bullet trains neither. Seems maybe they got a good reason."

"But yeah, I see your point. Definitely worth considering, once this job's over, we've dealt with the fallout, set expectations, dealt with the fallout of that and got a team ready to run. Just gotta remember, folks don't like their stuff being stolen, and corps can afford to track their stuff if they care to. So, we can't forget to make sure whatever we take isn't being tracked."

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

Headstone nods at BB in agreement.
''As an alternative, we could also focus on only stealing a vehicle and leave the rest for later. I think getting transportation for the entire group should be our main focus.
Get someone to arrange some new plates for us, a fresh paint job, the works.
That, or simply purchase one by pooling together some of the payout. Crew members taking the bus is just...you know. Doesn't feel right to me'' he responds, changing the subject somewhat.

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue's lips turn up in the hint of a smile. "But the corps would never see it coming."

[shaidar]

{Revs}

Those inside the cabin here someone slowly climbing the steps and Revs appears in the doorway with two large bags.

"I got extra bars and water, so we have some for tomorrow. I'll leave then on a seat, then I'm back out to help Basil."

Revs heads over and put the bags on a empty seat near Baby Blue.

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

''Thanks, chummer'' Headstone replies.

[archolewa]

{Baby Blue}

Baby Blue nods in thanks to Revs. Once he is gone, she eats one bar, and drinks most of a water bottle. She grabs several bars and a couple of water bottles, enough to feed her for tomorrow without interfering with anyone else's food stores. She then heads to the bathroom, and emerges a moment later.

[shaidar]

{Revs}

Revs shakes his head and leaves.

Each bag contains a box of 12 ration bars and 12 bottles of water.