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Hey, we finally found Wastelands! We must be in a great area of town, too, with hand grenades sitting in the street with the pins already pulled... Yowch.
Also, this guy is already shooting at me inside the club. What the hell, man? Another one of those Rust Stilletos punks, I suppose.
Ah, Anders. I like him for the same reason I like Peavey guitars. Plenty of bang for your buck.
Now if he takes care of this asshole orc, I will forever sing him praises.
Yeah, our first shadowrunner companion! Let's blow this cakestand and party!
Nevermind the fact that Anders only has 50 health; he is worth every nuyen he costs. He's cheap and effective.
Ah, Jetboy. I always refer to the most worthless character in my games as Jetboy. He does have one redeeming quality if you take him to fight the Rust Stilettos, as he finds a cache of money there for you, but his decking skills are complete trash.
However, the developers apparently put him in here for a reason, as he has all sorts of amazing knowledge of the players in this whole Matrix Systems / Drake fight that you seem to be in the middle of, so he's a good person to come back and talk to about that sort of stuff.
Plus, he shares a picture with that worthless schmuck from the Grim Reaper club that you gave an iced tea too. If the whole Morgue Guys / Ed's Patch n' Fix fiasco taught us anything, it is that avatars are everything. So you know that this guy is made of fail.
So just do yourself a favor and don't bother hiring him.
The only way Anders would've been more awesome is if he had told you to not hire Jetboy. But, as it stands, he is correct -- Steelflight and Akimi deliver the goods. Be sure to be on the lookout for them.
The stuff characters say when you have higher negotiation levels is funny, as they realize you are pinching them for nuyen. I think the "I got overheads!" line is one of my personal favorites. This is Frogtongue, and he is a tank, and definitely is great if you're looking for another hired gun.
Alright, so now we've got Anders and Frogtongue in tow! A true shadowrunning team. I'd have grabbed another guy (though Norbert the dwarf is a bit expensive, honestly), but there wasn't anybody there I really wanted and plus my Charisma score is too low to hire on a third runner [you can never have more than 3 extra runners with you at one time, and how long they stay is dependent on how high your Leadership skill is, much like how much they cost is determined by what your Negotiation skill is].
And I hired them both on purpose, because we're about to take out some trash.
Ugh, talk about a face only a mother could love. Just to the East of Wastelands, you run into the Rust Stilettos turf; and boy does it look like a classy dump!
So at any rate, the jig is up, so let's hose these wankers (errr... drekheads)!
With Frogtongue and Anders in tow, this whole event is a cakewalk. Once you've cleared the dumpster and trash heap, take out your handy Iron Key from earlier, and pop open this door.
Wow, this place is... Well, it's a place. It looks like a freaking warzone. What a freaking dump.
Once you kill everybody in here, the door at the end of this room will open up and a few more guys will run in. Once you dispose of them, be sure to pick up the crowbar that one of them drops, and continue on.
This is why you bring along some extra runners, because the shootout here is going to be the most intense in the game so far. So start dumping some lead!
Are all men from the future loud mouthed braggarts like you?
It is a dude, right?
At any rate, once you've cleaned up this craphole, it is pretty obvious from the gang leader that Drake is the one bankrolling them. Obviously he doesn't have very good taste in his street thugs; he should've just paid a team of professional runners to take Mr. Armitage down.
Also, appreciate the fact that the gang leader has a password for a Drake security system on a piece of paper in his pocket. Take this, as it will be useful later.
And that is why a system is only as secure as its weakest link, folks.
This "cruel man" will only let you pass once you have proved your worth. And apparently blowing away a punk gang like the Rust Stilettos is all you need.
Which means that all these other people standing in line? Chumps. All of them.
Welcome to the Jagged Nails club, where 50 nuyen on top of the slaughtering of a local gang, will gain you access to its exclusiveness.
Seems kind of... Empty?
Hey, that seems familiar... It's that fox girl from the beginning of the game, who stops by and heals you (assumedly) just before those Morgue dopes haul your carcass off.
Awesome, we finally have met Steelflight! Apparently he is an elf decker of the highest caliber that comes highly recommended... But holy crap, I cannot afford him!
Wow, an actual shapeshifter... Somebody blew a ton of build points on character creation.
Also, it is nice to have the beginning of the game explained in a bit more concrete manner. We're starting to fill in all of these accursed blanks!
It only makes sense to ask her about your spirit guide, Dog, and in return she gives you some magic leaves.
However, her hiring price as a shadowrunner is more reasonable than Steelflight, but still not something we need at this moment (though rumor is if you take her to one of these early on missions -- she will stay with you the entire game, but she is nearly impossible to keep alive in some of these crazy firefights).
Ask the bartender about Street Docs and he'll give you Dr. Maplethorpe's number, but it is rather worthless. However, having the Talisman on speed dial is nice, as it will save you some foot time at a later point in the game (or at least it potentially can).
But let's move on South and see what's going on...
...Drake has his own building? Drek. No wonder he apparently has enough resources to try and crush me.
In spite of having a passcode for here, we have other business to take care of first. But trust me, Drake, we'll be back.
It looks like we've reached the waterfront. Hey, I vaguely remember some clue from earlier about a warehouse. I wonder...
Hey, this is interesting... A "computer"... That means I can try out my newly fixed datajack with that cyberdeck I picked up earlier!
The Matrix is very... Whoa. 1980s style terminal ASCII art, ahoy!
Now if only I could remember if I took the red pill or the blue pill...
So basically you fight some IC on your way to these datastores, get the data, and jack out. And as our reward, a 2,000 cool nuyen from a Matrix Systems account!
Gah, there's more of that pesky plot again. Though this data file is interesting, as it would seem that our Mr. Armitage here is undoubtedly the mystery courier spoken of, namely due to the mentioning of the "cortex bomb".
...What. The...
It's a jackal!
Oh, it's a dog... And just when I thought I had a handle on the plot of this game, they've thrown me another curve ball. Apparently this is the manifestation of my spirit guide, or something.
And who is this Rat Shaman? Hopefully he's not talking about Master Splinter.
Alright, I've got healing magic now! Whoo! Apparently this Dog Spirit relationship, paired with vigorous pixel hunting, is going to pay off after all!
Now let's head back to the beginning of the game, I think we have some further business to take care of there.
Make sure to either moon or flip off the secretary as you go by. Apparently Glutman's choice in receptionists is not as awesome as Dr. Maplethorpe's.
Of course, judging by the former's occupation as a greasy scumbag, I am not surprised in the slightest.
Wow, a completely different computer decking screen from the Matrix Systems one.
[Editor's Note: The NAUCAS-SEA-2309 is actually relevant Shadowrun information. It stands for, as far as I know, NA -> North America, UCAS -> United Canadian American States, SEA -> Seattle, which is all relevant to how the continent is divided up in-universe in the rulebooks and source material.]
Alright, fight some more IC, and snag some more info from the data stores.
Of course, we could have hired Hamfist earlier to do this, but it would have been pretty pointless (not to mention a supreme waste of money). The only other decker I ever hire in this game is Steelflight, because he is a boss.
Interesting. So this Glutman fellow knows a hell of a lot more than I understood previously. And this Drake is seriously starting to get on my nerves... Though, I love the usage of "word on the street"; it's good to know that such classic old adages die hard.
But I guess we first have to deal with this Rat Shaman character to appease our spirit guide. What a killjoy.
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