On the job - Knight Errant Training Center: Seattle

To the untrained eye, the KE Training Center on the outskirts of Seattle looked almost like a military base. Large plots of open land served as firing ranges, exercise fields and most especially an assortment of various close quarters training buildings. Most 'buildings' lacked any actual roof, though quite a few were multi story and in a few cases, rather than buildings were things like passenger aircraft or featured various other vehicles such as a bus. This of course was because KE was here to do one thing, maintain security of almost all of Seattle. When Lone Star lost it's contract in 2070, KE eagerly stepped in, though the exchange process has been slow, drawn out and has opened a lot of holes criminals and Shadowrunners alike have been exploiting. That's where the KE rank and file guards come in however, you are something entirely different. You, are SWAT. Responsible for the 'real work', you, and your team are responsible for more sensitive tasks such as hostage rescue, high risk raids on criminals and other related tasks and the facilities here clearly demonstrate that.

General Areas (Map to come later)

Entrance:
There is only one gated entrance to the complex. Here a military style checkpoint is established complete with retractable road blocks, maned firing positions backed up by drones and supposedly even a few summoned spirits.

Administration & Training Centre:
This primary building is located in the northern section of the complex, it is here where all the work offices, training and lecture rooms as well as other related facilities are located. The building itself is the largest in the complex and stands over twenty stories tall. On the whole the setup is similar to a specialized technical institution or college. It also sports several helicopter landing pads on the roof and houses the training centre's armoury in the basement.

'Sports' field:
To the south east of the Training Centre is a 'sports' field. Primarily used for running laps, it sometimes gets repurposed for actual sports such as soccer, football or ruby. It also makes a great place to be yelled at while having to do push-ups and other daily physical exercise routines.

'Airfield':
This zone takes up the entire southernmost stretch of the complex and features several permanently landed aircraft for training exercises as well as a mock airport terminal done up on a smaller scale for use with CQB training.

'Kill Houses'
This section takes up the majority of the complex and features an assortment of open roofed or semi completed buildings for use in the day to day training exercises that take place here. The buildings range from generic versions of the typical middle class home to sections made up to look like slums and even two multi story office buldings.

13:40 hrs
Seattle KE Training Centre
Zone: Kill Houses
Sector: Kill House 3 - Office Complex 1
Scenario 5: Shadowruners with Hostages - Variant 622B

Gear Restrictions in Place:
-Armour:
SWAT or Full Suit
Ballistic Shield

-Weaponry:
AZ-150 Stun Baton
Shock Gloves
Sledge Hammer
Remington 990
Ares Alpha with Suppressor
Defiance EX Shocker
Ares Predator IV with Silencer
HK MP-5 TX with Silencer

-Explosives:
Flash-Bang
Flash Pak
Thermal Smoke
Breaching Charge Frames

-Ammunition:
Subsonic Gel
Gel
Stick-n-Shock
Shock-Lock
Tazer
Flash-Bang Mini Grenades
Thermal Smoke Mini-Grenades

-Drones:
Lonestar iBall
MCT Flyspy

The team was fresh, granted some of you might have had experience with SWAT before, but never with each other. Due to this the whole team had spent the past few days doing exercises and 'shake down' drills so that everyone could learn how each other worked and to help iron out any issues the team may develop before they became a problem in the 'real world' where lives would be on the line. That didn't mean training wasn't hard. The rounds used hurt, even with the armour and since KE was covering the medical bills, it wasn't unknown for the occasional serious injury to occur. The present scenario that was laid out before the team was fairly simple. You were up against a 5 story building, presently being controlled by an unknown number of 'shadowrunners' who were known to be equipped with automatics and stealth technology. The goal of this scenario was to secure the safety of 8 hostages and ensure they managed to escape unharmed from the building, once the 'hostages' were outside of the building and on the ground (regardless of the methods used) they would be considered 'rescued'. Of course, since this was a KE training ground, it also meant a number of cameras, drones and other devices were being used to record and analyze every tiny aspect, and any mistakes would most certainly be brought up in the debriefing. To make things worse, the team wasn't given any heads up on what the building layout was like, though there were several windows and doors that could serve as potential entrances, and blowing holes in the wall tended to be frowned upon as such things were relatively expensive to repair.

At present the team was milling around outside the building, waiting for the signal over their comlinks that would indicate that the scenario was 'live', giving everyone a few precious moments to get to know each other better while they played the age old game of 'Hurry up and Wait'.

Since Ramme was the first person at the start position for the test today, he search for a nice place so sit down and wait. He tries to reajust the shoulders of his SWAT Armour. They didn't fit well enough, they never do. Armour, Clothers, Cars, everything, even if they call it Troll size is always to small here and there. Hopefully the armour will fit in the future.

Next to him lies all he think he needs for this training. Shock Gloves, he checked that the were fully charged, a simple Ares Predator with to clips of Gel ammo, also he prefer more closer combat, two Flash-Bangs and the Ballistic Shield. Latter was given him by his trainings officer, saying something about that Ramme was the strongest guy for the front man job.

After he checked the equipment, which lies next to him, a last time, Ramme puts his armour back, leans back and starts reading his newest e-book on his com. If somebody would ask him, why a two and a half meter big block of muscle and magical enhanced reflexes, packed in heavy armour, would read a book about Zen-Meditation. He would answer, because he likes the kaligraphy of mandarin. And so he waits for the rest of the team, sitting in the shadows of a near wall.

Daniel slowly made his way to the training ground..he was still begrudging his superiors for changing him teams..Cass told him hed be more useful on a team that would see more live action and hers did and they could still see each other on leaves if theyd time it right.

As he was double checking his programs on his comlink with his AR gloves he slided a pic of Cass in top right corner of his Image Link display.

Right..lets think positive now..this isint college..those are mature and trained people im gonna be with he think very loudly trying to convince himself of it being true.

He makes some final adjustment to his gear: full body Armor, check :Predator,check :Stick and Shock Rounds ,check

He then run a quick (scan program) as he enters the starting point location and see the Troll
to wich he gives a shy wave.

Ginny walks up the two gentlemen already seated and waiting. She was somewhat familiar with them, as she had gone through some "shakedown" rounds with them yesterday and the day before. Today was supposed to be important, to some degree, as it would give an indication of the degree of success that those "shakedown" sessions had had. She was a little excited.
Slung over her shoulder, Ginny had the silenced MP-5, boasting Gel rounds for today's fun and games. Hunting 'Runners was always a good time. And Ginny was looking forward to the version of 'Runners they would be facing today. She looked down at the large "SWAT" emblazoned in white across the chest of her all-black SWAT suit with a smile. She was happy to be working for an organization who takes this work seriously. And KE takes it seriously.
"Hey boys, what's shakin'?" Ginny asked ironically. Since they were both reclining, waiting for the fun to begin.
"I think I'm going to break out some spirit help today; get some eyes inside. Hopefully it will help keep my suit clean. I hate it when I get a big pink paint-tag on my chest..." She grins, referring, of course, to the paint which the 'Runners coat their Gel rounds in to fire at the team. Makes it harder to pretend that you haven't been hit.
"I can pull a handfull of watchers out and try and get a feel for where our resistance will be. Should help. 'Less they've got their own magical support. In which case, we'll know that ahead of time too." She said, picking a spot against a wall to lean on. Her legs were warmed up already, from her morning run, and she didn't want to sit and let them cool off too much.

Ramme recognised her voice and looked up from his reading. Often the tries not to smile, when he welcom someone, since he knows that Troll smiles are allmost allways interpreted as a fearfull thread, but since she was an orc, and also a member of KE, he shows her a friendly grin.

Enthusiastic as every, little Ginny.

He looks around, if the rest of their group already are at the starting point as well. But since some are still missing, he sits back again.

I think nobody will reject some watchfull help today. But I think you should speak this detail out loud again, when everybody is here.
I'm fine by the way, thanks.

And Ramme starts reading again. The current part of the book was very interessting, about the historical aspects of Zen, and he hates to stop reading in between to chapters.

As you all milled about, your Comlinks chimed with a message from the training centre:
<<BEEP>>
Scenario to start in 5 minutes.

Meanwhile several surveillance drones were easy enough to spot milling about to catch every angle of the action, right along with the cameras and sensors both inside the building, that the other team would be using and that you yourselves carried. Ah the joys of the modern age, where everything you did would be picked apart, picked on and spit at you in a lovely ball of criticism in the debriefing. They never seemed to mention the things you did right though.. not unless it was really spectacular.

At least the weather was somewhat nice for Seattle, it was actually sunny for a change, though it was anyone's guess how long that would last.

"Of course I am enthusiastic!." She states, nodding to herself. "Why wouldn't I be? It is such a pleasure to be working with a competent team. Well, at least, semi-competent." She says, adding the last as a joke. She figured she had been working out the kinks with them long enough to let some of her deeply sarcastic humor slide in on the team dynamic. After her partner had died, she hadn't had many people to share her humor with.

Her reverie was interrupted by the beep of her commlink; all of their commlinks.

"Aieee, Bugger!" Ginny says, looking at her Commlink, and adding several creases to her face with a frown. "And we're not even all here yet!" She says, looking down at the two other members of her team already assembled.
"If they think..." She started, followed by an audible, and deep *Huff*. "If they think that I'm going to be doing this thing with just the two of you...!" She left off the sentence. Ginny, for all her street experience, was a remarkably reserved person when it came to cursing. And this seemed like just the time for cursing.

Daniel raises his head suddenly realising Ginny's presence for the first time. He found her a bit too loud for his tastes

Who is missing again?..Or are we gonna get stuck with some suprise test to evaluate our ponctuality?

Quote :

"Of course I am enthusiastic!." She states, nodding to herself. "Why wouldn't I be? It is such a pleasure to be working with a competent team. Well, at least, semi-competent.

Competent? Your sure your training is today, he? Ramme lets out a short laugh. Nobody should say, Trolls don't have humor too. He wants to at something when his commlink beeps.

After this little comment from Ginny about their current situation, he stands up and make himself ready. Stretches the muscles, make some jumps and pig up the gear.

Yes, this could may be also part of the test. And now, don't complain about thinks you can't change, stand up and work at thinks you can change.

Ramme whistle and beckon Daniel, so they all can talk a little bit about their mission.

Lets think about what we can do. If the other come a little late, I would like to have a plan to discuss with them.

"Heh, yeah." Ginny barks a laugh in return. She was glad to see that they were warming up at least. It helps working together when the team is not wary of each other; no longer feeling like they were "chosen" to be together.

"And yeah, you're right. Let's get ourselves a plan buttoned down, huh?" She replies, nodding as Daniel responded to Ramme. - Huh, what should I do this time... A coupl-a watchers to keep us from being totally in the dark. Then what...? Ginny muses for a few moments, thinking back on a time, not too distant, when she would have sent her pets inside to sniff things out for her. - God I miss them...
"Well, give me a moment to pull some Watchers out of my patootie. At least they'll tell us the basics inside." She says, pausing for just a few moments to summon some watcher spirits.

Summoning Test, 2/4 hits; success.
Drain Resist: No drain taken.

A few moments later, Ginny turns back to the boys and nods, a grim look on her face.
"You're right that we have to knuckle down and do what we can, but this ain't gunna be fun. I got some watchers. They should let us know at least if there's some magic in there. And maybe, if we're lucky, they might give us a heads-up on what else is going on. It's always good to be somewhat prepared.
"Though, being fair, I can't send 'em in 'till the cap gives us "Go Time". Otherwise it would be cheating." She says, matter of fact.
"So, what'cha thinkin'?"

Ramme face becomes concentrated. He shaded his face with one hand and looks over to the Kill House. Hmmm.... The other can hear him think out load.


Yeah, with you taking control over the cameras and her watchers, we should be save us from any nasty surprises in there. ... Since we are only three people, we will need all firepower we can get. So we have to stay together. If nessecarry I will carry you, will you are in the Matrix.

First, I think, we should go around the building, using every possible cover and look for a good entrance. With this three informations, we should be able to move an.


Did we got a map from the building by our training officers?

Time: 0530
Place: Corson family home

///ALARM...ALARM...ALARM///

I flip awake at the sound of the comlinks alarm beside the bed. my wife stirs next to me and reaches out her hand to gently tap my arm.as I turn off the alarm. I rol over and kiss her good morning.

"another day working to keep you safe" I say gently to her as i turn from the kiss and place my feet on the floor. I walk to the private bathroom adjacent to our bedroom and begin the morning ritual of a shower, shave, brushing teeth and other hygienic passtimes. as I finish my morning ritual I can smell eggs and bacon cooking in the other room.

"you know I tell you not to buy the real stuff" I comment offhandedly.

"I didnt sweetie, I promise this is the higher quality synth stuff though..."

I roll my eyes and give her a kiss on the cheek as I pass her to head to Jori's room. I knock on her door firmly "hey kiddo its time to get ready for school" I yell as I knock on her door.

"Do I have to" the normal reply comes back

"Yes"

"Fine" and the sounds of a five year old getting ready for preschool come from the other side of the door. I turn around and return to the kitchen and eat breakfast. as I finish a beautiful little angel with tiny little tilted piggy tails bobs past to give her mother a kiss.

"Alright time for daddy to go to work." I hug them both wish them both a wonderful day and head out the the Humvee civic. hop in, and turn the key... and nothing happens... son of a gun...

To: work
From: James Corson

my vehicle is broke down. Im going to be a bit late...

///End transmission///

I then pop the hood and begin looking at a whole bunh of wires that I dont understand... so I walk back inside and get my wife to take me to work after dropping our princess off at work.



Time:0900
Place: SWAT headquarters

I walk in and head down to the armory to begin my daily checks. Diligently cataloguing what people have done to the beautiful weapons they entrust us with.



Time:1230
Place: Armoury

"hey man you heard you got a training bout in about an hour?"

I look up to make sure the officer was looking at me... and then shrug. "Alright Ill be ready in half an hour. what's the loadout?"

"well its the...."


Time: 1340
Place: Kill house 3

I walk up as everyone is making a plan. My Swat suit is bristling with hardware. my ARES alpha is slung across my back. my ballistic shield is also slung over my firearm. my pistol is in a leg holster and I am clearly carrying a half dozen flash bang grenades in grenade pouches and a bandoleer of flash bang mini grenades for the grenade launcher attached to my primary. I am carrying multiple mags of gel rounds. several more then is the standard loadout.

"so you guys locked, cocked, and ready to rock?" I say in a cocky tone and judge everyone's reactions "if we need a loadout of where everything and everyone is give me 2 mikes and I will do a quick radar sensor sweep and send everyone a copy of my data" I flip the shield around and into place and pull out my sidearm. i'm ready for infiltration whenever we get the good word.

When James arrived, Ramme stops his thoughts for a moment, looked down to James and with the same movement checks his watch. Nice to see you, James. Better late than never. But save your excuse for the chief after the training.
That said, Ramme looks back at the Kill House again and resume to this thoughts.

Okay, James will provied us with some additional intel then. Ramme looks back to James with a doubtfull glance. I hope you brought a ultrawideband radar this time. Remeber the last training, where you figured out, that normal radars can't penetrade walls?


I may have an idea or two, but first of all, we need to know more about this building and the people inside. So I would suggest, that Daniel tries to take over the cameras in the building, if they exist. If their own hacker makes you too much trouble, try to shut the cameras down, all of them.
James use his gear, he seems to have enough of it. And Ginny use her watchers.

During this time I go and check out if the drone we use have some kind of holo projector installed.

Anybody has other ideas?

Ike awoke to the sound of the alarm he had set up on one of his toy drones - the minotaur he had fashioned from an old Bust-a-Move. The minotaur...trapped in the Labyrinth built by Daedalus. It stirs a slight memory of his VR dreams. Had he seen him? His Paragon? But then, the thought vanishes, whisked away to the Resonance, like mundane dreams to Mr. Sandman. The toy has been buzzing for sometime, apparently, as he realizes the time. Great, I'm going to be late to the kill house. Too bad "fashionably late" doesn't apply to Techno's - they'll probably figure I was off hacking into someone's brain or something. His bastet Felix is dozing off on a sunlit windowsill, and he chooses to leave it to its own VR dreams. He gently touches the vibrating toy, feeling through the Resonance its agitation. He soothes it, turning off the alarm, and begins his morning preparations with much haste.

Ike ran up to the rest of the group waiting at the course. Well, at least I'm not the last one here. He's wearing his form-fitting SWAT armor, but his helmet is off to allow him a better field of vision. As for weaponry, he has on a pair of Shock Gloves, an Alpha slung behind his back armed with Gel rounds, and a Predator IV in a holster on his left hip is armed with Stick N' Shock rounds. He has a pouch on his right hip loaded with two flash bangs and a concussive grenade, along with an iBall. A Flyspy is perched on his shoulder as well. He has to resist the urge to mold them through the Resonance, because he is only borrowing them. I feel useless without my LEBD's. I guess I can shoot as well as anyone here, but that's not why they hired me for SWAT. I guess they're trying to teach me to be independent by holding my drones. Well, I don't want to be independent.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I must have subconsciously disconnected my alarm last night. Sometimes being a Technomancer can be frustrating!" Always hide a lie with a truth. "Have you guys made any plans yet?" He doubted "Clobbering Time" and "Daisy Duke" had figured anything out yet, and "Ball and Chain" was probably still shaking the crumbs out of his eyes after a night of his wife's nagging and his kid's whining. That kid Daniel had a good set of brains, but he wasn't very good at voicing his opinion. Ike himself wasn't much of a planner; he was more of an organizer. Besides, he seemed to be the only member of the team with any leadership skills at all. Being a cynic and a compulsive liar doesn't necessarily make you a bad leader; in fact, it sometimes makes you a good one.

"Umm... I just pulled a couple-a Watchers out my Patootie, but other'n'that, we haven't got nuthin'." Ginny says in response, frowning at Ike but not mentioning his timing.
"We got like 3.5 minutes to figure out what we wanna do, an' we got no intel to speak of. I could send in the Watchers, but that kinda defeats the purpose of training. So it's plannin' time now.
"I'll send the Watchers in soon's we're ready to bust in the door. There's gunna be some guns trained on the door, so we'll have-ta take care of that. Anything beyond that, we'll need the watchers, and maybe a recon drone, to find out anything about what we're up against." Ginny said with a shrug. Of course there would be resistance at the door. That's what flash-bangs, and concussion grenades are for! She was also correct that there was no telling what they would encounter beyond that; and there was no way to know if the 'Runners would have sound suppression, and flare compensation in their eyes and ears. If they did, the subdual grenades wouldn't do a whole lot.

Yeah, but which door should be bust open? Ramme asks, when he come back from the drones. No holo projectors on them, so we can't use them as distraction.

So since you want to go straight into it, what's about this. I think there is a parameter where our oponents can look outside of the building, we throw a punch of smoke grenades at door there and sneak around to bust into another door. Daniel here can even manipulate the cameras a little bit and Ike's drones can produce a little bit of movements in the smoke.

There is also the option to split up, now that we are more than three people, but I don't like that idea very much. Ramme finished and look around to see the others reaction to his idea.

While the people on his team are discussing strategy Daniel (Scan) the building for any node he could hack..security..comlinks..anything he could hook himself to. First he ran his)(stealth program) hed then try to (Hack on the fly) anything inside

( rolls are for an admin account..anything extra will go for another node/comlink)

<<BEEP>> Scenario commences in 2 minutes

While the others finish gathering together and start planning what to do next, Daniel begins to scan for nodes, however without any idea of where to actually 'search' other than 'general area of this building' he finds his efforts do not yet turn up anything usable. The only nodes he could presently pick up were those of his team mates and the assorted surveillance gear that KE had in place (clearly tagged in AR/VR) to monitor the session. Meanwhile on the Astral, anyone watching would see one of the KE wage mages sweep through on patrol, no doubt there to ensure no one was cheating, and to keep an eye out.. just in case. Spirits were generally under the control of their summoner, but it wasn't an entirely unknown event for less experienced mages, and sometimes even experienced ones to summon something they could no longer control.



Green are tinted windows, blue are doors.

"Two doors, four of us. Obvious plan would be to split up. But they'll be expecting a flanking maneuver - they're probably split up right now facing the two doors. Or, they've cleared out any cover on the first floor and are waiting on the staircase, waiting to provide death from above out of a narrow corridor. These are shadowrunners, not goons, after all." Runners are used to box o' rocks Lone Star tactics, though. So we better come up with something inventive. "We need a diversion - something to make them think we've split up to flank them. We could set up timed door-breaching charges on the doors, then send something through one doorway as a distraction while our full force busts in through the other, overwhelming their split force. But, like you said, Ramme, we have no holo projectors. If we could find some kind of net or blanket around here, we might be able to stuff some Fly-Spies under it and with enough smoke and jumpy enough runners, our ghetto ghost could confuse them enough for that split second advantage we need." Theatrical at best, but if we could get in there for long enough to find some cover without getting turned into swiss cheese we could get a better tactical grip on the situation. In the meantime, Ike decides to compile a machine sprite to help his shooting.

Compile Machine Sprite R3
My test - 3 hitsSprite's test - 1 hit
2 tasks owed

A sprite in the form of a small mechanical monkey holding a wrench appears before Ike.

Fading Resistance Test
7 hits
No damage

Ike asks the sprite to examine his gun.
(Sends the sprite on a remote task to use its Diagnostics power on his Ares Alpha smartgun)

Diagnostics Teamwork Test
2 hits

(Ok so im assuming since were a team i can access there comlink easily)


Not finding any node inside Daniel hooks up all of his teamate comlinks togheter as well as using there smartlink camera and drone camera to give him
multiple angle during the battle.

Right,.. so im ready on my part


(do i need to keep spamming scan or youll tell me when i cna hack a node?)
GM: You basically keep making Scan tests until you get at least a minimum of 15 hits or decide to stop. 15 is the minimum required to detect even the most basic device in a general area that's running in hidden mode.

"hey its not my fault your comlink doesn't have any good rendering programs, ill just send you a video recording this time"

My eyes turn off of normal vision and I begin the radar scan of the building, my smart link immediately shows my little red dot of where my firearm is pointing. The walls turn translucent and my wired reflexes boot up turning the world into slow motion. I begin my search to see how many people are in the building. (perception test)

"Hmm... Ike, I like where you're going with that. But I don't see it working. I can get the door to open, that's not really that much of a problem. I can command one of my spirits to, ah," Ginny pauses for a second, considering her words. "Well, I could get one of my spirits to open the door, by any means necessary. They will attempt simple force first, then resort to using powers to open the door. So if the door is watched or mined, the 'Runners inside will know it's opened. The ruse won't last, but that gives us a few seconds.
"Then, that leaves us with the other door. And what to do with that one. OR: We could attempt to go in through the roof, or one of the windows. I have "Levitate", which I can make work on one or two of us at a time. At least, those of us that are human weight." Ginny adds the last with a smirk.
"Say two of us go in the roof, and it doesn't have to be me, that gets us in, probably somewhat safely. And as an added bonus, it will likely confuse and distract them for a minute or two. The rest of us can slip in the downstairs door of our choice on a, say, 30 second delay." She says, putting the finishing touches on her entrance plan. Once they were in, there was little actual "planning" that they could do.
"And finally, it's easy enough for me to send a Watcher to the roof to see if there's anything up there defending against that." Always have to cover all the bases. It would be inconvenient, and a little embarrassing, if the first one to pop over the roof ended up with a large pink gel-paint-splotch on their helmet visor.

Almost as soon as James starts to utilize his vision mod, a loud beep signals across everyone's comlink and James finds his vision suddenly turns to static, but not before he gets at least a bit of an idea of what part of the first floor layout was like.

<<BEEP>>Scenario has not commenced. Sensors detect radar in use, counter measures put in effect. Scenario has now started early. Scenariou difficulty now increased. Defending team institute actions 37-B-9a and 37-B-9c. 3 minute penalty on time applied to team KE-J32-I. Bypassing countermeasures will result in an additional penalty and corrective action.



GM note: I love layers.