R.E.G. - Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator

Hey! Cool news! Glenn in the comments below asked if he could make a port of it over on Chartopia. I gave him the go-ahead and here's what he came up with! Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator on Chartopia

If you haven't noticed, Cyberpunk is cool again. With the buzz surrounding the Cyberpunk 2077 video game announcements (seriously, check these videos!), the 30th Anniversary of Cyberpunk 2020, and R. Talsorian's "Resurrection Tour" at Gen Con 2018, it's hard NOT to be excited about our favorite dystopic future genre.

Since that part of my brain is lit up, and in the same vein as the Random Loot Cards and New Tokyo Screamsheets pages I resurrected from a 2001 Cyberpunk Campaign, I give you...

R.E.G. - The Cyberpunk Random Encounter Generator!

R.E.G. started as a set of random encounter tables I put together as part of an ever expanding document of house rules for that 2001 cyberpunk campaign.

You are welcome to download the "ascii" version and make it into your own dead tree version...

Eventually, four pages of lookup tables got to be excessive and the most cyberpunk thing to do was to make it into its own application.

Being a Mac user in 2001, my boss at the time suggested I use Hypercard to make it happen. For those unfamiliar with Hypercard, it's basically a "card" and "stack" based database with a graphical front end. To be honest, I forgot what version of Hypercard I used, but I did have to include a "plug-in" so it could handle COLORS!!!

Below is a breakdown of what the Hypercard stack looked like and how it operated.

When you opened the Hypercard stack, you were presented with this main screen:

Please note this was a one-off home-built app, not shared with anyone.

You selected your encounter based on where the player characters were located in the city and the approximate time. Clicking on the corresponding sector would move the targeting reticle to that spot. (Actually, all sectors had the same reticle—it just unhid the sector you selected and hid the others behind big black squares.)

Once you hit the ACQUIRE button, it randomly generated your encounters based on your time and location seed (Ha! The app was slow enough, that I included the green bar under the button to show where it was in the lookup cycle.), and switched to the following screen:

You would actually get three encounters—one in each black box—and it randomly selected an action number from a sub-table (see the PDF) for each encounter. The SET ACTION button allowed you to "reroll" the action values. The blue buttons scrolled through the entry so you could see the full action sub-table. The ENABLE buttons just indicated what your choice of the three was—selecting one ENABLE button would light up the other two DISABLE buttons. The REINITIALIZE button would bring you back to the main screen. I believe the tiny black square above the green and red triangle buttons showed you how many individuals were present in the encounter, and you could adjust that value with the buttons.


If somebody wants to go through the effort of making this into a modern mobile app of some sort, let me know and we'll discuss!

Cyberpunk Random Loot Cards

What's In Their Pocketses...?

Recently, I picked up Paul D Gallagher's Augmented Reality (Blog, PDF,  Dead Tree). It's a fantastic resource for a generating a living city in your cyberpunk campaign.

Inspired by Paul's "What's on the Corpse?" table and thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, I decided to resurrect my Random Loot page, circa 2001.

What you'll see below is a slightly edited version; updated for clarity, more contemporary cyberpunk genres, and to be more system agnostic.

In case you can't obtain the cards I reference below, I've found 30mil blank white PVC CR80 ID cards on Amazon (they also make phenomenal Aspect cards for Fate games!). You can also get 30mil ID cards in various colors!

Random Loot

If you've ever had a problem with coming up with personal items and things your characters find on victims' bodies, what follows is an interesting and fun solution.

See, when we get a new player in the game, I just throw the character into New Tokyo and have them fend for themselves. Unfortunately, more often than not, the character ends up killing random street thugs and looting the bodies to come up with some creds. I got tired of having to come up with personal items every time they asked, "so, what do I find on the body?"

I also have a problem with spending money at a particular adult video arcade/bar & grill.

So I came up with something that solves both of those problems. This "barcade" tries to soothe you as you walk through the door by handing you a complimentary game card (worth approximately 1.7 games...) Last time I was there with one of my players, we burned up the complimentary card in about 2 seconds flat. Jason bent his card in half to keep them from recycling it. He asked me what I was going to do with mine. I told him I'd find a use for it in Cyberpunk or something. He looked at me with this big grin and exclaimed, "CredSticks!" Next thing I know, he's bopping around the place looking for used cards left on tables. Eventually, he asked one of the managers what they do with the cards. The manager told him they just pitched 'em. So Jason asked if we could collect them (GOOD IDEA - ask before collecting). As an added bonus, every time the manager passed our table, he dropped off a handful of the used cards he found. By the time we left, we had over 40 cards in different colors.

So what's this got to do with anything? Well, I made up a list of, "things in your pocket for 500cr., Alex", including some useless items, printed them out on stickers, and stuck them on the cards. The more expensive, uncommon, or "elite" items I put on the green and blue cards, since I only had six of them. As an added bonus, the cards look cool with the caution stripes.

My favorite card - just because it looks funny.

So..... next time one of the characters pickpockets, mugs, or loots somebody, I have them randomly pick a few red cards. Usually 1d6 cards. If the poor victim is "well-to-do", I shuffle in the blue and green cards (shuffling the cards aint easy!).

Here's the list I came up with:
(Credits values are low because the player can pick more than one card.)

• 2 Credits
• 3 Credits
• 4 Credits
• 5 Credits
• 6 Credits
• 7 Credits
• 8 credits
• 9 Credits
• 10 credits
• 2 Drug Capsules (Random street drug)
• 2 Maglev Tokens
• 2 12 ga. Shotgun Shells
• 3 Bus Tokens
• 3 Subway Tokens
• 5 Empty 9mm Casings
• Aspertabs (1d20 in the bottle)
• 5.7mm Backup Pistol
• Cheap Plastic Vending Machine Pistol
• Baseball Cap (With "All Saints Auto Repair" or other auto shop printed on it)
• Bit of Wire
• Music Chip (Some band one of PCs hates)
• Burner Phone (Currently locked)
• Cheap Digital Watch
• Cheap Gold Chain or Earrings
• CredStick (Locked)
• Data Chip
• Digital Cab Hailer
• Disposable Lighter (d100% full)
• Disposable Pocket Flashlight (d100% battery life)
• Squeeze Tube of Nutritional Paste (1 meal)
• Generic Pack of Smokes (1d20 cigarettes remaining)
• Green Glowstick (25% chance of being spent)
• Leather Belt
• Loose Key
• MirrorShades
• Nice Pen
• Nice Watch
• Old Screamsheet
• Pack of Caffeine Gum (1d8 sticks remaining)
• Pack of Gum (1d8 sticks remaining)
• Pager
• Pendant
• Phone Number scrawled on a scrap of paper.
• Pocket Lint
• Pocket Tool (Knife, Wrench, Screwdriver, etc.)
• Cheap Tablet (Map of New Tokyo is loaded)
• SkillSoft (Level 1 - Roll one randomly from skillchip table)
• Small Flick-Knife (7.5 cm. (3") long)
• Small Polished Stone
• Ticket Stub
• Emergency Evacuation Contract Card (10% chance accidentally broken while retrieving it)
• Used Breathing Mask
• Used Syringe (10% chance of getting poked while retrieving it)

New Tokyo Screamsheets

Back in 2001, I was running a Cyberpunk campaign using a homebrew ruleset based on Top Secret/S.I. At the time (when I had more time), I was chronicling the campaign on a now-defunct website. I was also producing semi-regular newsletters for the campaign I called New Tokyo Screamsheets.

These Screamsheets contained things like discussions of technology, legality of weapons, and story seeds; along with your standard smattering of weather reports (and the birth of Air Advisory Guy), classified ads, obituaries, network programming schedules, police blotters, Body Lotto numbers, advertisements, etc. Some of the articles were fictional snippets borrowed from other fictional sources. To make it personal to the players, I would usually do a "front page" article on one of their latest exploits and possibly have NPCs communicate with them through the want ads—and they would communicate back!

Recently, I was able to find the source files and PDFs for the New Tokyo Screamsheets and decided to post them. Here they are with a couple of hints as to what you'll find inside:

• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 1 - Weapon and armor permits, a street drug named Cupid.
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 2 - Cyberware permits, Trauma Team coverage plans and costs.
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 3 - Arena Racing final, a slaying outside a Gas-n-Sip™.
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 4 - Crimes and their punishments, vigilantes stopping college student harrassment
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 5 - Cloning technological discourse, hacking punishments
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 6 - Arasaka Tower attacked from multiple vectors
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 7 - News reporter assaulted, a haunting poem by Vera Blue
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 8 - NeuroProcessor training, Vera Blue missing, many police calls
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 9 - A full Police Blotter
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 10 - Fire on the Horizon, Virtual Reality technological discourse
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 11 - Cyberpsycho on a rampage, "Blank Plague" Threat
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 12 - Warehouse Explosion, power outage at Chateau Hotel
• New Tokyo Screamsheet No. 13 - Video journalist threatened, "Blank Plague" relief?, Nostromo hacker bar trashed

Special thanks to Deric Bernier of Datafortress 2020 for hanging on to the old New Tokyo Screamsheets in his Cyberpunk Archive—stumbling upon them recently made me want to post my originals.

The ORIGINAL Oil Rig Mission - 2001

Since Pete and I are revisiting the Oil Rig Project, I felt it was important to re-post the mission that inspired the project.

Back in 2001, I was running a Cyberpunk campaign using a homebrew ruleset based on Top Secret/S.I. At the time (when I had more time), I was chronicling the campaign on a now-defunct website. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, parts of that website still exist, so I can resurrect them here.

Now that I am currently running an Interface Zero 2.0 campaign, you might see some more pages from the old site be resurrected...

Contract Intel:
The PCs go to their fixer's place and get a quiet room where they negotiate a deal to infiltrate an Oil Rig, retrive a data file, and leave the rig. Each team member gets 3000cr retainer for supplies, a total of 5000cr for securing the rig, and a total of 10,000 for a recovered data file.

Data about the rig:

Manufacturer:  Erdel Type J-3 Rotary Drilling Rig
                        Manufacturer based out of Houston, Texas
                        Now defunct

Current Owner: unknown

Location:      Approx. sight distance from New Tokyo bay

# of Crew:     Support for 38
                     The previous owner had approx. 12 when he lost possession of the rig.

Communication: No land lines
                           Possible satellite uplink

Location of Data File: unknown

Type of data: Entire database

Computer System: unknown, possibly UNIX-based

The Actual Mission
This mission was set up as a "test" mission for a higher-end employer. The employer is basically just pitting two mercenary teams against each other. One team defends the rig, the other assaults it. The team that survives wins future contracts. It doesn't matter which team attacks and which defends, I just chose to have the PCs attack. I figured it would be more interesting and I had a decent "contract" idea that involved all the players.

The oil rig has been derelict for at least 15 years, probably more. With the development of CHOOH2, drilling for oil became more expensive. This particular rig made several taps with minimal result. It became more cost effective to leave it where it sat at the last tap, than to pull up shop, weatherize it, and dry-dock it. So, questionable elements set up shop in it soon after it was abandoned.

Their usual contact informed them that the rig was in his parent organization's possession and was recently raided, overrun, and occupied by an opposing organization's mercenary team. Normally, blowing it out of the water would be the order of the day, but when it was previously owned, they used it as a waypoint for illegal contraband, and all their shipping records were stored in the rig's local database. The PC mercenary team's primary objective is to secure the entire database. A secondary objective is to recapture the rig, if possible. The payoff is 10,000cr per person for the database intact. If no database, then 5,000cr per person for the rig. Not to exceed 10,000 per person. 3,000cr in advance are provided for expenses. Unregistered weapons and small equipment provided up front, with understanding that the weapons will be returned upon completion.

If the players asked, their contact was only able to provide them with a mangy copy of the emergency exit floorplan of the sub-deck.

Oil Rig Emergency Exits: OilRigEmergencyPlan.gif missing. I hope to find it someday...
If they pried some more, their contact informed them that his organization had previously set up IR motion detectors, but they may or may not still be functioning. He was able to provide approximate locations of some of them.

Oil Rig Recon: OilRigDeck.gif missing. I hope to find it someday...
The above map also shows the observed sentry locations when the PCs did some preliminary recon.

It took me a while to put together a working map of the oil rig. I found a gem of a website at http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~gavenda/oilfield (NOTE: This link goes to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine as the original link no longer exists). The guy who put it together did a great job of explaining, simply, the regular goings on on a "jackup" oil rig, including plenty of photos. Thing to note: a jackup rig is really a big ship that has three huge extendible legs. It is towed to it's next drilling location and then it jacks itself up about 100-150 feet above the ocean and begins drilling. I highly recommend reading it and passing on the address to your more ambitious players.

Oil Rig Layout

The detcord on the dock level is of a blue plastic variety. It is wrapped many times around the support legs, just above sea level and, upon casual inspection, just looks like water-level paint markings.

The generic explosive in the survival capsule off of the control room is a bundle of pipe bombs with a mercury switch to prevent them from being moved.

The shaped charges are pre-manufactured and look like small inverted plates. One is intended to discourage helicopter landings, the other two are placed behind the diesel fuel tanks to engulf the main deck if necessary.

All explosives have been modified to accommodate a small black box with a red numeric LED display, and a short rubber antenna. This box is a remote receiver controlled either by the com officer through the control room computers or the demolitions expert with a small handheld controller. The com officer can only start the 5 minute timer or detonate the explosives. Only the demolitions expert can shut them off (he can also start the timers or detonate).

The infrared motion detectors are simple. They have a 90 degree field of detection (indicated by the legs on the symbol on the map), can easily be defeated by an IR suit, and have no operational feedback loop (no on/off indicator). If tripped, they will trigger a simple alarm heard throughout the rig.

There is a small data hutch on the main deck that has two log files in an antiquated VAX system.

They are left over from when the rig actually served it's purpose, and will only slow the players down if they try to get the VAX up and running and try to interface with it to get the files.

The operations database in the control room is bogus. Even so, by the time the players get to it, it should be pretty well jibberish due to the virus the com officer puts on it.

All opposing units are equipped with a NeuroProcessor, SmartGun Link, SpeedWires, a com link, medium body armor, a 10mm Glock, a SmartGun Linked 9mm H&K MP5, and a combat knife and have above average skills to use them.

1. Commander - Begins in the control room
   Extremely strong with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth.
   Husky, clean, and commanding.
2. Sniper - Begins on the monkey board of the derrick
   Above average strength with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Sniper Rifle, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment.
   7.62mm H&K G3SG1 Sniper Rifle instead of the MP5.
   Big, relaxed.
3. Com Officer - Begins in the control room
   Very high intelligence with other attributes above average.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Radio Operator, Interface.
   Combat CyberDeck and CyberDeck Link.
   Thin, sure of himself.
4. Pilot - Begins sleeping in the crews' quarters
   Above average strength with other attributes at the high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Piloting most transportation forms.
   Vehicle Link and Chip Jack.
   Big, cocky.
5. Demolitions Expert - Begins having a snack in the kitchen
   All attributes above average to high end.
   Boxing, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment, Demolitions.
   Short, bulky, grouchy.
6. Underwater Ops - Begins in the starboard crane cab
   All attributes above average to high end.
   Martial Arts, Swimming, Stealth, Concealment.
   4-shot speargun, armored wetsuit instead of body armor.
   Skinny, quiet.

If motion detectors go off:

• alarm will sound
• 4 and 5 will wake up and get to the upper deck
• 1 will order to attack

If intruders spotted:

• observer will call into 3
• 3 will alert the others
• 1 will order to watch then attack if needed

On first attack:

• 1 will coordinate
• 3 will jack in, monitor motion sensors, cameras, and explosives
• 6 will dive overboard, disable any intruding craft, and prep the escape boats

If control room computers are hacked:

• 3 will fight via software
  If defeated:
  • will initiate a virus to destroy the data
    If virus defeated:
    • will detonate the terminals
    • will set all other explosive timers for 5 minutes

If overpowered:

• will try to escape by diving overboard
• will get into the escape boats
• will detonate the oil rig remotely

The Outcome
At the time, I was also producing semi-regular newsletters for the campaign I called New Tokyo Screamsheets. This was the report in the Screamsheet issue that followed that game:

SPECIAL REPORT:

FIRE ON THE HORIZON

Early this morning, emergency officials were notified of several explosions and fire spotted just above the horizon over the ocean. Preliminary investigation revealed that the fire is located on a derelict oil rig miles offshore. Witnesses report that there was an initial fiery explosion followed by several smaller ones.

From https://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgpress/4541155893

The cause of the blaze is not known at this time.

Interface Zero - Part 3

So, where we last left off, Jackson was facing off in melee with a ninja looking suspiciously like Tabitha, Simon was advancing on the conference room, Tabitha was clumsily checking out the offices, and Zeb was on overwatch.

An explosion signifies the deployment of the second enemy team. Fortunately, Zeb, expecting something like that, already had them in his sights, and immediately takes out one of the six.

As Jackson and Tabitha 2 are trading blows, Simon runs in, grabs the silver box, and bolts.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Zeb takes out the leader of the strike team.

Tabitha goes to check out the damage done by the explosion, tripping over one of the dead bodies in the process.

The strike team retreats, regroups, and readvances, to no avail. Zeb takes out two more.

Finally, Jackson gets a solid blow in, knocking the ninja unconscious. As the sword tumbles from her hand, Jackson's programming goes directly from self-preservation to medic and kneels down to patch her up.

The remaining two members of the strike team decide to bolt and get into the van to make their escape, unfortunately Zeb sees one get into the drivers seat and cuts him down.

With the box in hand, Simon calls for a hasty retreat. The last remaining member of our own support team reports that he's captured a prisoner and will be bringing him along.

The last remaining enemy in the van bolts out the back, with Zeb in hot pursuit. As he makes it to the front of the building, Zeb turns the corner and shoots him in the back. Down he goes.

The team finally regroups and boards the armored bus for departure. Despite Zeb's protests to grease the prisoner, Simon proceeds to interrogate him. They find out that he's just an actor playing a part and explains that the script didn't go as planned. At that point, the team realizes they've been set up and decide to go to one of Simon's safehouses.

Meanwhile, Jackson gazes into the laserfine patters on the silver box, gets lost in them and almost loses his "humanity". Fortunately, he snaps out of it, oblivious.

The group, sans their remaining support member and prisoner, but with an unconscious ninja Tabitha, sit in Simon's safehouse pondering their next move...

Interface Zero - Part 2

This is a rough outline of our second game. I hope to add more details (or even write it as Jackson's log file!) in the future.




Tabitha wakes up on the operating table, staring into the big plastic grin of her attending physician, Jackson.

Jackson fails to heal her with a, "there, there now." He tries again under Dr. Bob's watchful eye and succeeds. Then gets promptly fired.

Jackson overhears Tabitha and Simon talking about a job, so he asks if he could tag along. They agree.

Tabitha finally gets a decent shower while Simon and Jackson raid the medical supplies.

They end up taking a taxi manned by a cat...er orc with a samurai sword to Yorktown mall.

They speak with a fat, sweaty lawyer who offers them a job retrieving a silver box with the numbers "0,0,0" on it from the HelpDesk Inc. main office. After some clever positioning and negotiating by Simon, they agree. Meanwhile, Jeb, on lookout, gets harassed by mall security. He sternly explains that his ginormous sniper rifle is a gift for his wife. The rentacop leaves quietly. They all jump into an armored bus manned by the same "orc" and are joined by another 4-man tac team.

They reach the HelpDesk Inc. main office, deploy, and send the tac team in first.

All the previous occupants inside appears to be cut to death.

Shortly thereafter, another team in two vans shows up. One van deploys at the front gate wearing red armor and begin a pitched battle with the tac team. The other van proceeds around back.

Meanwhile, the PCs work their way into the back. Simon gets in and starts hacking the system to try and locate the box. Tabitha is checking out the nearest likely rooms. Simon discovers a meeting about the box was scheduled in the main conference room. Jackson runs there immediately, trying to avoid the rounds and grenades being tossed back and forth at the front of the building.

Once he arrives, the room is dark. He flicks on the light to see the entire meeting group dead in their seats, the silver box in the middle of the table. Out of his peripheral vision, something drops from the ceiling.

He turns to see a female ninja wearing samurai armor. She has Tabitha's face!

Interface Zero

Last night,  I got my first chance to play Interface Zero, a cyberpunk setting for the Savage Worlds RPG.  Josh ran it (a different Josh), and since we were short players, I was able to talk Eric and another Fair Game patron into playing with us. I am very happy with how it played out, so here's my post-game writeup:



Darkness.

Tabula Rasa

That's the first thing I remember.

Then I opened my eyes.

Still pitch black.

I thought, "well, at least I'm alive." Then I patted myself down to take stock of myself. I seemed to be unscathed, wearing some sort of paper, but I was constricted by something. Fumbling around, I found the backside of a zipper. I paused to listen before trying it. Footsteps. I decided to get out of whatever it was I was in and quickly. I worked the zipper from the inside, bright light pouring in and stinging my eyes.

"Are you alright?" asked the figure standing in front of me.

"Who are you?" I snapped back.

"My name's Simon. I've come to get you out of here."

"Here where? Where am I?"

"Downers Grove."

"Downers who?"

"Downers Grove. It's a shithole in the walled city of Chicago."

My eyes adjusted to the light, fading to the dim light of the decrepit room. Simon squatted down next to a nicely wrapped box with a bow that was near the bag I escaped from. He undid the bow and the box unfolded, revealing a card, a credstick, a pistol, and a knife.

"Tabitha? I think these are yours," he said.

I moved over to the objects and picked up the card. It was blank, but my mind superimposed words over it: "Take these and run."

I looked up at Simon. He seemed to have received a similar message as well, as he produced a briefcase, opened it, and retrieved a pistol.

I put the card and credstick in one of my paper pockets, tossed the box and ribbon into Simon's briefcase a fraction of a second before he snapped it shut, and picked up my gift weapons - one in each hand.

Simon made his way to the staircase down and I followed close behind. At the base of the stairs, a man with a huge rifle was keeping two other men at bay. The closer of the two, seeing Simon step off the stairs, called out, "let's make this easy. We just came for the merchandise," and nodded in my direction.

"Well, you can't have HER," replied Simon. "Why don't you leave before somebody gets hurt."

About that time, I heard a car pull up. The second guy turned and stepped outside to speak with the driver.

"Listen, in about two minutes, I'm going to have to put you both down and take the merchandise anyway."

Something about the way he said it triggered something in Simon. In one smooth movement, Simon darted across the hall, triggered the spring-loaded knife release in his boot, caught the knife, and plunged it into the guy's throat.

He grabbed his throat, dropped to his knees, and gurgled, "well, that sucks."

I'm surprised I remember that, as I was also enraged by his comment, tore across the hallway and out the door, and found my own knife plunged into the other guy's back. As he dropped to the concrete, the driver calmly asked, "now who's gonna pay for these sandwiches?"

Simon stepped up and said, "that's my order. Can we also get a lift out of Downers Grove?"

"That's strictly against policy. But the going rate's 10 credits each."

While Simon was making arrangements, I pulled out the card and looked at it again. This time, my mind read it: "Congratulations."

I then decided to check the two dead men. The were both carrying large pistols, both carrying credsticks, and both carrying I.D.s showing that they were Level 1 Support personnel for HelpDesk Inc. I took all of it. They were both wearing what looked to be almost identical outfits made to look like distressed street clothes. Actually, now that I think about it, they almost LOOKED identical.

I grabbed one of the jackets and a pair of boots and put them on.

Simon, the silent guy with the rifle, and I climbed into the small delivery vehicle. I handed Simon the credsticks, one of which he promptly paid the driver with and tossed out the window.

"Can I have one of the sandwiches?" I asked.

Simon handed me one, which I tore open and voraciously ate. It was simultaneously the best and worst thing I ever ate. It was a flavor I had never experienced, yet vaguely remember. At the same time I could taste each individual artificial chemical used in the processed protein and texturized vegetable matter.

Simon directed the driver to his apartment, which was situated above a convenient store. Upon arrival, the silent guy with the rifle got out and started hiking off into the distance, Simon stepped out, waved, and called after him, "See ya Zeb. Thanks!"

Simon's apartment was a sparsely furnished couple of rooms that doubled as storage for some of the convenient store's old hardware. Taking a look around, I found a pristine envelope taped to the side of an ancient slushy machine. "Hey Simon, what's this?"

Simon looked just as confused as I. He tore it off the side of the machine, opened the envelope, and removed another blank card. He stared at it for a long while, then looked up at me with furrowed brow. "I'm going to find out what HelpDesk Inc. is all about."

He sat down at a desk that had to be about 80 years old. "Huh, looks like there's two new job postings for them on craigslist."

I sat down at the coffee table and started going through the objects I collected during the evening:

• Boots - Men's, artificially distressed, no labels.

"Checking their public site."

• Jacket - Artificially distressed, no labels, bloody hole through the back.

"Nothing exciting."

• Two Plastic I.D.s - HelpDesk, Inc. Level 1 Support. Nothing else.

"Just a firm that rents out low-level security personnel."

• Two 10mm Watchdog Automatic Pistols - New, registered to HelpDesk Inc., fired two or three times at the most, 12 rounds each.

"I'm hitting up their private site."

• One 10mm Watchdog Automatic Pistol - New, unmarked, unregistered, and direct from the manufacturer.

"Huh, there's a big gap in their firewall…"

• One Combat Knife - New, unmarked, unregistered, and direct from the manufacturer, bloody.

"Big white room. Single file cabinet in the middle."

• Box and ribbon - High quality, otherwise unremarkable.

"I'm gonna open it."

• Blank card - Now it says, "We'll be in touch."

"Damn! Nothing in… SHIT!"

• Credstick - Labeled, "Rasa, Tabula."

Simon snapped out of his trance and sat upright in his chair, "damn honeypot…"

"Rasa, Tabula." Is that my name? Simon called me Tabitha. Did he read it correctly?

"How'd you end up in that body bag?"

"I don't know."

"Well, what happened before you climbed out of it?"

"It was dark."

"Do you remember anything before that?"

I thought for a long while. "I don't remember anything before that..."

"Hey, I just got an IM from some guy. He liked our work dispatching the HelpDesk guys and wants to offer us a pickup job."

Something wasn't right. "That was awfully quick. I don't trust them."

"Yeah, but it's a job working for a company on the same level as HelpDesk."

"How do you know it's NOT HelpDesk trying to set us up?"

"Well, our only other plan is to take those two openings and work for HelpDesk… Anyway, we got a couple of days to decide. It's 5 AM, and I can use some sleep."

Simon moved to his cot, made no attempt at removing clothing, warned me, "don't go outside," and, as promised, went to sleep.

I was still reeling from the night's events, so I decided to do some online shopping and pulled up MallMart's clothing line. After perusing their entire catalog, I settled on some comfortable athletic wear, rugged running shoes, and a pleather jacket with ballistic panel inserts. They said it would be delivered within the hour, so I decided to take a quick shower.

Unfortunately, Simon's bathroom left something to be desired. Like cleanliness. My best bet would be to do some spot cleaning.

I shed the blood-splattered paper coveralls, wet some toilet paper, and stood in front of the cracked mirror. The body was medium-dark skinned and athletically built. But the face was startling. Blonde, pale eyes, strong bone structure. I didn't recognize it all, yet at the same time something deep inside was familiar about it.

I wiped off the remaining blood droplets and scanned my body for any distinguishing marks. As I ran my fingers over the nape of my neck I felt a raised pattern. I swiveled my shoulders around enough to make out the the genetically modified roman numeral "III".

At that moment, I was notified that my package had arrived and was waiting for me downstairs. I hurriedly pulled on the paper coveralls, put on the boots and ran downstairs.

Waiting for me was the same car and driver from earlier in the evening, however the "Johnny Jim's" placard had been replaced with "MallMart". I took the package from him, thanked him, and bid him a good evening. I opened the box, pulled out the armored pleather jacked and put it on. Then I decided to look around the area.

Noticing the convenient store clerk and my dry throat at about the same time, I stepped inside the brightly lit store.

Annoyed, he impatiently looked up from what he was working on.

"Hi! Where can I find the drinks?" I asked.

He jabbed a grungy finger across the store to a sign that boldly read, "DRINKS."

"Oh, thanks!"

I made my way over to the slushy machine and poured myself the largest CrocAde Slushy available.

"Hi! Whatcha working' on?" I asked as I stepped up to the bulletproof booth to pay.

"I saw you come in earlier. You Simon's new girlfriend?"

"Well, I'm female and I'm Simon's friend, but that's about the extent of it."

"Well, a couple of guys were in here asking about you."

"When?!?" I shouted.

"About fifteen minutes ago."

"What'd they look like?!?"

"I dunno. Like street thugs."

I bolted for Simon's apartment.

Once inside, I ran over to Simon's cot and shook him.

"Wha?"

"Simon! They're here!"

"Who is?"

"Those guys!"

Rubbing his eyes, "Who?"

"HelpDesk Inc.!"

Fully awake now, "When?"

"About fifteen minutes ago!"

Simon leapt up and grabbed his weapons. I hurriedly tore off the paper garments and replaced them with my new purchases, jamming two pistols into the pockets of the jacket.

Then we ran back downstairs.

Carefully rounding the corner of the building, we noticed the convenient store clerk conspicuously missing. We entered the store and noticed some movement in the back row by the drink coolers. Simon went right, I took the left.

"Bang!" Simon's gun went off and Simon ducked back behind the shelves. There was obviously a threat, but Simon didn't hit it.

I decided to try my side. I ran to the end of the rows, peeked around the shelves and fired on the unsuspecting thug. He didn't stand a chance, going down with a thud. I ran back to the clerk's bulletproof booth only to meet the barrel of another thug's gun inside. Startled, I tried to stop quickly, but only slid in the puddle of the clerk's blood and ended up on my ass.

The thug fired. He was apparently startled as well, as his bullet hit the ceiling. I fumbled for my second pistol, fired both, but only one connected, putting the thug down.

I got myself on my feet and found the clerk's assault rifle behind the counter just in time to see another thug advancing on Simon. I pulled the trigger on the AR and held it down, putting several rounds into the bulletproof glass between me and Simon's new threat.

My bluff worked, because the thug bolted out the back of the store with Simon hot on his heels.

Just as Simon was about to clear the door to the stockroom, he stopped suddenly and dodged back into the store just as a launched grenade passed through the door and into the frozen foods behind him, blowing up the produce section and raining down bits of flaming vegetables.

I ran out of the clerk's booth and around the shelves, just in time to see a man in heavy red armor raise an assault rifle at Simon's prone body, forcing him to drop his gun. That's when I opened up on the guy in the red armor. Unfortunately, the armor did what it was supposed to, so I ducked back behind the shelves.

Simon took the distraction as an opportunity to pop his spring-loaded boot knife and try to find a chink in the armor. And failed.

Just as I was about to take another shot at the man in red, one of the thugs got the drop on me, sinking his blade deep into my right shoulder, cutting muscle and scraping bone. The pain was incredible!

It gets fuzzy from there. I remember sliding down the shelves to the floor. I remember handing the clerk's assault rifle to Simon. I remember the sound of breaking glass and my assailant's head disappearing in a pink cloud. I remember Simon frantically trying to apply medical care to me. I remember a few more shots. Then…

Darkness.