Adventure 2 of a teenage Cyberpunk sniper: Young Snips once again joins sneaky Wispa on a delve, this time accompanied by Ophelia the clever anarchist, good old work-shy retainer Melody, new retainer Bobby and the waste nomad Maximum Lee.

The game is “Wasters”, B/X Cyberpunk on Discord.

It was joked among the players that in a Cyberpunk world, somebody with a name like “Bobby” could not conceivably have any sort of life expectancy.

The team invested in fresh ammo and five frag grenades — who knows when the next guard dog or picknick party might show? — and took on a “big” mission. Not just some random stealing of half-eaten food storages, not fighting hungry dogs, but an actual mission for some corporate bigshots. Happily, the teen-gang agreed to go out into deadly danger to help a shady corporation gain some unknown piece of data from a “secret hightech lab”. Whatever other loot they might find was theirs. Hooray!

A big Osprey airlifted the team out into the empty wastes to some rickety shack in the middle of nowhere. The corporate muscle stayed in their cozy Osprey and sent the young girls out to explore.

Rusty elevator or rusty rungs

In the rickety shack was a shaft that led 50 or 60 feet down. The choice: Going down into the depth with a rusty elevator or climbing rusty rungs? The party decided to climb, because the elevator might either send us all into an glamourless early TPK or make enough noise to raise the dead.

Instead of dead, though, the girls found robots. Noise be damned, they took the first two out with simultaneous shots. They fell apart and spilled a yellow fluid. This turned out to be corrosive, so the nosiest infiltrators got burned; Snips included. Was that necessary? The robots had just sat there, silently. At least there were valuable circuit boards to be recovered.

The next two robots sat just as still, and the explorers decided to take them intact, maybe even more valuable, tying them up with ropes. They never stirred.

Painting a sound picture

Finally, a huge door with a weird opening mechanism, and above them, loudspeaker covering. Snips identified the loudspeakers, but did not take them seriously. Until Ophelia and Bobby forced open the lock, and the speakers started humming and rising in pitch.

Horrified, most of the team took a dive for cover in the alcoves with the tied up robots. Ophelia studied the loudspeakers with great interest: She wanted to know more about them, because she was a smart girl. Too smart for her own good.

Bobby, less booksmart and more streetwise, ran.

When the speakers found the right frequency, they cooked Ophelia in her tac-armor. Splat! Her innards painted the door carmesine red. Bobby made it far enough so only the left half of his body exploded to spray the tunnel wall like a fresh Hermann Nitsch original.

Then the sound stopped, and the door fell open with a resounding clangggg.

The horrified survivors picked up some characteristic bits and pieces of their friends for later burial. Then they divvied up their valuable belongings, mostly ammo and grenades (not exploded by the sound!). Snips got the perfect sniper present: A thermo-camo poncho, rendering her invisible even to heatseeker drones. It just needed a good hosing to get out Ophelia’s particles.

The next room was a hall, with three more robots, this time with some level of electric charge. Snips picked the central one off with a cool long distance shot. Then she got cocky and took on the other two, but failed to hit at the shorter distance. Luckily, her friends took them down.

Museum of modern art

Robots were still vibing with what the corporate dudes had said, but now the survivors found statues. Stylized, hero-chinned stone giants. Wispa noticed a secret door behind the first of them, and that led to a long corridor with a dozen more, with swords. Snips shot two, just to make sure they would not activate. They did not.

Reinforced by a new addition to the party, a nice and helpful sentinel called Reynold, the team moved forward. Snips found a secret door leading to a security office with assault rifles and another piece of art. And a central hall with more art.

Dread

Art, art, art, and no enemy to run from, no target to shoot: That fed an oppressive sense of rising dread. By now the girls and Maximum Lee could no longer shake the impression that the cyberpunk corporation handlers had fed them some horseshit about the “Secret Hightech Lab”. This began to look like the hideout of a super-rich supervillain. (But in bad repair, so likely abandoned)

Seven doors: Number 1 open, number 4 decorated with fine, well, art.

They took on the open door first and found even more art: A room full of more stone statues, further feeding the mounting paranoia of our intrepid heroines. Exhausted, they decided to call it a day, return to the stash and up to the safety of the waiting Osprey, to bring home the remains of poor Ophelia and Bobby, and for a quick fix of baked beans and some First Aid for the bruised and acid-burned.

End of Delve 1.
And a promise to come back for more.

Snips 1 – Fighting Dogs
Snips 2 – Fighting Robots
Snips 3 – Fighting Swordsmen
Snips 4 – Fighting Kids
Snips 5 – Fighting Dreadnoughts
Snips 6 – Fighting Running from the Boss
Snips 7 – Fighting Cops
Snips 8 – Fighting in the Pharmacy
Snips 9 – Fighting Cats
Snips 10 – Fighting Lions
Snips 11 – Fighting Code
Snips 12 – Fighting Chaos
Snips 13 – Fighting Words
Snips 14 – Fighting Mechas
Snips 15 – Fighting in Cubicles
Snips 16 – Fighting Fire
Snips 17 – Fighting Frogmen

Snips 18 – Fighting Raiders
Snips 19 – Fighting Rivals

Snips 20 – Fighting Frog Commandos
Snips 21 – Fighting in Cyberspace
Snips 20 – Fighting Frog Commandos
Snips 21 – Fighting in Cyberspace
Snips 22 – Fighting Greed

Snips 23 – Fighting Butch Killers
Snips 24 – The Head of Alfredo Garcia

Snips Special: Messy Mission
Snips Special: Gentlemessy
Snips Special: Razor Clause
Snips Special: Pro Level

Snips Special: Adelard & the British Racing Green