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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Russell Palmiter <UPRPALMITER@********.BITNET>
Subject: The Game is Afoot.
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 16:12:23 -0600
*****PRIVATE TO: Caine, Tracker, Scorpian
>>>>>[It is an honor to serve with you all. My friends who accompanied
me last time, won't be returning. They think the place is too dangerous.

To fill you in, a group of us were hired to infiltrate the Allhalous
Research compound last weekend. Things didn't go so well. Our contact
dropped us off outside the facility's perimeter.

***BEGIN TRIDEO FEED***

The scene fades in. A flat rolling plain covered with thick grass
stretches out in front of you. In the distance, a jagged mountain peak
rises above the surrounding terrain. Everything is quiet as you approach
the base of the mountain.

The Allhalous compound looms into view. As a military transport exits the
main gate, you can catch a glimpse of two more fortified gates within.
Evidently, they don't like visitors. Beyond the outer walls stands an
obsidian tower. Its height reaching to a few hundred feet below the peak
of Mt. Rainier. The entire appearance of this facility fills you with
dread. Ever feature, except the WELCOME sign, causes a sense of unrest
in you.

The camera shifts around, taking in the entire scene. A white elf,
staying low to the ground, stealthfully moves toward you. You notice
that the other team members are moving into position. Included are:
Iron Hands - a dwarven shaman, Nightshade - a human hitman, Steelfeather -
an Indian shaman, and, of course, the elf by you, Frost.

Remaining totally silent, Frost makes several hand gestures at members
of the group. After he is finished, the team spreads out and vanishes
from sight. Frost and you move around to the far side of the mountain.
With a quick twist of the neck, Frost drops an unsuspecting guard.

Now that you've approached the compound, you can see, every hundred
meter, a watchtower with two guards along the walls. Also, the rear
of the compound is carved directly into the mountain-side. It looks
impossible to climb up. There is a man-made moat being fed by a lake
adjoining the mountain. It completely encompasses the compound.

As you and Frost make your way around the base, a large, cerebus hound
leaps out ontop of Frost. He collapses under the weight of the,
obviously, ticked off paranimal. Unable to reach his gun, Frost begins
kicking and punching at the beasts stomach. Fortunately, he kicks the
right spot. Before the hound can recover, a blue bolt of electrical
energy engulfs the hound. It slumps, stunned. You can see the weapon
in the lower part of the picture. Finally, the "camera-man" gets
involved. The picture fades out.

When the view returns, the entire team has gathered at a subterranean
opening through which the water from the moat flows. The opening
was guarded by two men and another hound. However, they look rather
incapacitated. The opening, itself, is sealed by thick, metal bars,
almost like a prison door. After a few moments of cutting, the bars
fall away. That's when the silence is at last broken by a shrieking
alarm.

The team quickly glances around right when the gunfire begins. Watch-
towers seem to be spraying the entire mountainside with bullets. A
spotlight centers on the group and the gunfire narrows in. The
scene moves frantically back and forth. On one side, the two shamans
are furiously pumping magical spells into spirits and entities. Frost,
Nightshade, and the "camera-guy" are unloading clip after clip into
approaching guards and paranimals.

Although the team seems to be doing well, the odds change swiftly when
military vehicles (i.e. GMC Banshees, helicopters, transports, etc.)
begin closing in on your position. That's when, out of the corner of
the camera, you see Frost get hit several times in the chest. He cries
out in pain while he's still unloading rounds into the guards. Finally,
Frost collapses. Nightshade picks up his gun and continues firing.

The picture fades out.

***END TRANSMISSION***

That's it mates. Frost, luckily, didn't die. After I turned the camera
off, Nightshade went down. We picked up the wounded and made a hasty
retreat to our pickup point. Fortunately we had a quick way back to
Seattle. The total assessment of our excursion left two of our team
in critical care, a third heavily stunned by the drain he suffered, and
the rest of us tired and nursing minor injuries.

What would make this run so important? Saim Hain has a six-figure
nueyen bounty on his head. Why so pricey? He's been smuggling samples
of biological warfare agents out of the Tir. Don't ask me where they
got them, but now Saim Hain has them and from what our employer says, he's
planning on using them.

At this point, I don't care about the money. As far as I'm concerned,
you can split that up among you when we get this guy. All I'm
interested in is avenging my friends.

I'll talk to you all later if I haven't frightened you off.]<<<<<
-- Longshot <16:12:27/04-07-55>
Message no. 2
From: Enos Michel CDT <x62674e3@******.USMA.EDU>
Subject: Re: The Game is Afoot
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 1994 23:17:11 EDT
*****PRIVATE TO: Longshot
>>>>>[I'm definitely in on this one. I'll be ready to go very soon, and
I'll
see what I can do about getting some Kehole shots of the complex. ]<<<<<
-- Tracker < 21:14:51 / 04-08-55 >
Message no. 3
From: Caine <BES@******.UCC.NAU.EDU>
Subject: Re: The Game is Afoot.
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 12:49:24 -0700
>>>>>[I am in, Longshot. ]<<<<<
--Caine (KUNG/FU)
Message no. 4
From: Mark Imbriaco <mark@**********.COM>
Subject: The game is afoot.
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 21:26:36 -0800
***** PRIVATE: Easy Eight Staff
>>>>>[ We've wrapped up our final planning. We're hitting them at
oh-one-hundred. They're a good group of kids, and Nomad has a knack
for planning -- we had a problem right at the beginning where he would
look to me for approval about every aspect of the run, but I explained
to him that it's his team and I'm just along for the ride. I don't
anticipate any problems, but I'd appreciate it if you'd have a
friendly street-doc on standby just in case. I don't want to have
to do any explaining at Seattle General with a GSW victim.

+++++ begin video

A large conference table sits in the middle of the floor, surrounded
by nearly a dozen chairs. A muscular young Amerindian is standing,
leaning over some blueprints that have been laid out on the table.
On one side of the table, a thin man is leaned back in his chair
with his eyes closed. The datacable that is running from his temple
to the cyberdeck in it's black macroplast case proclaims him as the
team's decker. A man and a woman with the hard, intense look of
street samurai sit across the table also looking at the blueprints
with the Amerind. At the far end of the table, a wiry oriental
man gazes attentively at the rest. He seems to small to be a street
samurai, and there are no obvious cybernetic mods to mark what his
position in the team is. The last man at the table is a tall,
very powerfully built man who is paying attention to the rest of
the goings-on at the table with a gruff look, nodding occaisonally
as the Amerind speaks.

Finally, the Amerindian stops and begins rolling up the blueprints
as he starts speaking. "That's it. I'll be with team Alpha coming
in the front door while Griffyn leads Bravo through the back. We
go in a few hours. Equipment check at twenty-three hundred. Lets
try and get a little rest."

+++++ end video ]<<<<<
-- Griffyn <18:22:01/11-21-58>

Further Reading

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.